Take Me To The Water
by Finnhart
Summary: Seto is coaxed into accompanying Mokuba and Yuugi’s gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around openfires, skinnydipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt? UkeSetoxSemeJou. Please R
1. Accidents With Buckets

**Author's Note:** Okay, so I need to tap into what people want to get the readers and reviews that I want so far as Seto-centric fiction goes. I know a lot of people like _Prideshipping_ (SetoxYami) and a lot of people, including myself, like _Puppyshipping_ (SetoxJounouchi) - though I'll admit I've taken quite a liking to _Rivalshipping_ (SetoxYugi) as of late.

I don't think I would ever write a Prideship fic, though I feel ready to tackle the Puppyship having just distantly dealt with Seto/Yugi in a non-yaoi fic I recently finished. I don't know how long this fic will be, but I'm going to do my best with SetoxJou. I would base their behaviour on my numerous gay friends but they are all pansies and have nothing in common with either Seto or Jou so… I'm out on a creaking limb here. Oh and I decided that Seto should be Uke… just to break away from the general trend I've been seeing a lot of around here.

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

* * *

**Chapter One**

**Accidents With Buckets**

Seto was done for the night. He noticed it was a relatively early finish compared to usual as he sank into his squeaky leather chair, eyeing the wall clock that he didn't normally have a breath of a moment to even glance at. His long, white fingers ran carelessly through his hair. It was eleven o' clock in the evening and Mokuba would have gone to bed by now. He had recently given up on waiting for his big brother to come home, a change in routine which Seto felt bad for. Even though he was constantly disappointing Mokuba and himself with his failure to arrive home in time, he had still enjoyed carrying the little body to bed from the various places he'd fall asleep in; the game room couch, the fold-out bed in the living room but more often than not the squishy chair in the downstairs office.

Sighing heavily, Seto languidly shuffled and arranged the piles of paper on his desk into a presentable state, swept all the charts and spreadsheets he still needed to go over into his metal briefcase, flicked some croissant crumbs off the keys of his laptop before clicking the light out on his desk lamp. He loomed from the darkness of his office into the softly lit corridor, safely locking the door behind him with a different golden key for three different locks, topping that off with a spoken command into a security system that only his or Mokuba's voice could undo. He turned without so much as an acknowledging nod toward the night guard before sweeping through the maze of corridors in the direction of the stairwell.

His shoes clipped smartly on the polished floor as he made his way along, stopping only briefly to gaze into the wall of aquariums he had installed into the offices of his most senior and reliable workers. A treat, he had decided. His goldfish and koi carp at home calmed him greatly; he felt the creatures would benefit his most trusted workers, as well as wooing them into a deeper state of devotion to their employer. A small pocket of extremely loyal workers was worth so much more than ranks upon ranks of grunting temps who only worked at his corporation for the money and brief stint of experience to boost the calibre of their curriculum vitæ.

His eyes lingered a moment longer on a handsome, fist-sized goldfish before he carried on his way. He could see the serenely lit staircase sliding into view, but he stopped, a wary tang of surprise flickering under his skin. He could see the back-end and elbow of a worker around the corner, grumbling as he mopped the floor. Seto frowned. Such work should have been completed hours ago. Seto had never seen the cleaning staff actually doing their job before, because they were meant to finish so much earlier than he would normally leave his office. With a snarl he marched over to confront the slacker and to promptly fire him.

'Why on earth are y– _Jounouchi?'_

A mop of straw hair shivered as Katsuya turned to face Seto, his brow plastered with more hair that had stuck to his sweat. His cheeks were flushed; his bare forearms were tense and riddled with protruding veins from his toil, his breath was ragged and his eyes blazed despite the red rims and dark rings.

'What are you doing here, _bonkotsu?'_

'I work here, _cunt._ Don't you even know who you employ?'

Seto faltered at the harsh language, perhaps a little shocked. His face soured. 'As your superior I demand an apology for your insolent language _immediately.'_

'_Sorry,_ your _Highness.'_

Seto fumed. Nothing he did could ever curb the bare-faced crudeness of this idiot. Not even those who loved Katsuya could tame him.

'So why are you so surprised to see one of your own employees, _Majesty?_'

'I employ other people to hire brainless grunts like you to do this kind of pathetic work.'

Katsuya snarled, gripping the handle of the mop so tightly that his knuckles went white. His eyes flickered as he growled at Seto.

'This _pathetic work_ is damned, fucking _hard_ work_. _You would notice very quickly if you didn't have people like me to do this job – your floors would be filthy and there would be scrunched up paper and food wrappers all over the place. Do you have any idea how messy those people are?' He brandished his mop in the direction of the aquarium offices. 'They don't give a damn! Sometime I feel like emptying a bag-load of their own rubbish all over their desks –'

'Shut up!'

Seto was glaring furiously at Katsuya, feeling glad that at least one of his hands was occupied by his briefcase – he had enough sense to control the actions of a single murderous fist, but a pair might have been too much.

'So your work is hard? Fine, but you're too slow at it! I have _never_ seen a member of cleaning staff working so late before. Why are you still here?'

Katsuya huffed and resumed his mopping.

'They put five of us on each floor, I'm one of the five who were cleaning this floor tonight, but the other four bailed. They wanted to go to a gig or something, but I said no. I can't afford to cut hours anyway, I need the money…'

'So you have effectively taken on the workload of five.'

'Well... I guess–' Katsuya suddenly felt nervous. Surely he couldn't be blamed for anything? From one angle it was almost as though he had stayed behind out of dedication to the job.

'Give me the names of the other four. I shall see that they are dealt with accordingly.'

Katsuya spluttered in surprise, then reeled off the names of the others, thrown by the professional attitude that Seto had suddenly slipped into, complete with blank eyes and a bored face.

'Um…' he glanced around him. He only had one last stretch of corridor to mop. 'I'm nearly done now anyway.'

Seto followed his gaze over the floor, which wasn't particularly dirty anyway. 'You can leave it. Go home.'

Katsuya's face lit up, his tired eyes flared with relief and warmth. He grabbed his mop and bucket enthusiastically.

'Hey Kaiba, maybe you're human after all – fancy that!'

He turned to head down the stairs. Seto checked his watch and sighed, pushing his spare hand over his face. He was so tired already and it wasn't even that late.

'ARGH!'

A shout, a snap and a splash jolted him out of his mental lapse. He glanced down the stairs towards the shouts of pain from Katsuya and gasped as he saw the idiot crashing awkwardly down the vast flight of stairs, a split bucket tumbling after him and small tide of dirty mop-water trickling down step by step. Seto heard a few crunching noises before he regained control from his shock-ridden body. He let go of his suitcase and darted down the stairs after Katsuya, avoiding the water.

'Bonkotsu, you idiot!' he snarled. Jounouchi did not reply from where he had landed at the foot of the staircase, crumpled like a broken doll.

Seto reached the bottom and flew to kneel beside Katsuya.

'Jounouchi?'

There was no response. Seto growled and harshly slapped Katsuya's face, barking at him once more to wake up. A few more slaps and Seto finally saw a glinting sliver of deep brown appear under Katsuya's eyelid.

'Jounouchi! Fool! Your neck should be broken. Idiot, trying to run down a wet stairs! What were you thinking?'

'Don't – think–'

'No you don't think, that's your problem.'

'I don't think – that – w-was meant – to ha-happen…'

'Really.'

He glared down at Katsuya, whose face was marred with blood from his mouth and nose. He was shivering wildly from the shock and he had yet to make an attempt to get back on his feet. With a flickering eyebrow Seto intended to grab Katsuya's hand and pull him back onto his feet, but the whisper of a memory tickled his mind. He recoiled sharply from Jounouchi, gazing unseeingly at both their hands. His own was smooth and delicate, with long fingers. Katsuya had thick, weathered hands, with tracks of ropey veins running clearly over the surface. Seto leaned forward slightly, staring hard with parted lips. Katsuya had hands just like Roland.* He brushed his fingertips lightly over the veins, before turning the hand over to investigate the palm.

'Kaiba?'

Seto flinched, dropping Katsuya's hand as though jabbed with a knife.

'I think I should get going –'

Seto blinked at Katsuya's words before his face returned to a hard mask. He rose from the floor and brushed his knees off, gazing indifferently as Katsuya tried to sit up. He was grumbling to himself between hisses of pain but still he continued in his mission to return to his feet. It was not until he placed his weight upon one arm that he cried out and collapsed once more onto the cold floor.

'Kaiba I think–'

'–that you've broken your arm, yeah.'

'_Fuck…'_

Seto straightened his jacket out, fiddled with his cuffs and smoothed his lapels down. A final flick of his chestnut hair and he looked down once more upon Katsuya with a curl of disdain at the corner of his lip, considering his next words carefully. Finally he spoke in a slow, cautious tone.

'It's too late to call the K.C. medical office; there won't be anyone there now. I have a private doctor, who will come whenever summoned. I suggest that I take you to see him.'

Katsuya looked confused. He gazed at the broken bucket and dirty water.

'You are my employee, therefore you are my responsibility. Your accident happened at your place of work during your… somewhat _unofficial_ working hours; nonetheless you are entitled to free care in such a circumstance. It was in your contract, if you ever even read it.'

Katsuya gaped at him with scrunched eyes, obviously lost in a memory that he wouldn't find. A slight shake of his head confirmed Seto's suspicions, at which he huffed and shifted his weight onto his other foot, checking his watch once more.

'So how long will it take for him to get here?'

Seto glanced at Katsuya through his hair.

'Who? The doctor? He won't be coming here; _his_ contract states that he is required only to take calls from the Kaiba Manor. If I or my brother get into trouble elsewhere it is up to the bodyguards and K.C. medics to deal with it. I will have to take you to my manor in order for him to deal with you.'

Katsuya went pale.

'Your manor?'

* * *

Seto had to half drag, half carry Katsuya. It was incredibly tough going; they had to take one more flight of stairs to reach the first lift, three of which they had to take in order to reach the ground floor where Seto had to drop Katsuya on the floor to gain his breath back. On the way he had expelled an entire reserve of eyeball daggers at his night guards, all of which had stopped to offer their help, only to recoil and dart back to their posts when Seto barked at them.

Katsuya was also exhausted from their journey down the tall building. His arm was throbbing now, the pain emitting from it sent both his hands into a quake that was so severe that it looked incredibly fake. His wan face shone thickly with sweat. The dried blood, which Seto had so charitably decided not to offer to wipe off, had cracked and made his skin feel dry and stretched.

'There yet…?' he mumbled from the floor.

'Nearly,' huffed a red-faced Seto. He was feeling hot and bothered and now felt wide awake. Getting to sleep tonight was going to be even more difficult than usual. Gathering his rapidly diminishing strength, he hoisted Katsuya to a crippled standing position, taking almost all of the weight. Sighing heavily he ploughed onwards, biting back with scathing taunts as Katsuya hissed at him for 'making him feel even more shit'.

Fifteen minutes later Seto had all but bundled Katsuya along the backseat of his car like a large bag of shopping.

'Argh! Watch it, you gobshite!'

'As your boss I resent that and will take action against you in the near future.' Seto slammed the car door shut with twice the necessary force and ruthlessly ripped the driver's door open, sliding in and slamming that with just as much aggression. The air in the car prickled with pulsating testosterone, it was thick like the smell of burning rubber.

Seto took a short moment to massage his sinus before flipping open the glove compartment, reaching in and extracting a small case. Katsuya watched as Seto opened the case to reveal a pair of designer spectacles, sliding the wide arms through his hair to hook behind his ears. The case slipped shut and was tossed carelessly on the front passenger's seat. Seto shifted around to face Katsuya.

'It's roughly a forty-minute drive to my manor. Put your seatbelt on. Don't bleed on anything. Don't speak, don't fidget, don't – what?'

Katsuya had been frowning at him with a curious expression, slackened by the haze of pain. He lifted an eyebrow.

'What? My glasses? I need them to drive.'

Katsuya blinked and nodded. His greying eyelids were heavy, his eyeballs were gritty and the sounds around him wound down like the final note of a dying music box. His exhaustion and pain had nullified his raging testosterone and now only Seto's irritable aura filled the small space of the blue-lit interior, but that too was quickly dissipating like cigarette smoke. Both young men were tired, neither enjoying themselves nor looking forward to what was to come.

Katsuya's head flopped forward as his weariness gained control and he mumbled into his chest, ignoring Seto's own mumbles about 'forgetting the goddamn briefcase'.

'Man, I really hope this doesn't ruin our holiday…'

Seto turned the key in the ignition. The car rumbled into life.

'_Our_ holiday?' There was a hint of bemused interest in his voice.

'Yeah,' Katsuya continued, stuttering through a yawn, as they pulled away from the vast Kaiba Corporation tower. 'The camping trip, Mokuba said that you were okay with it.'

'_Camping_ trip? _What_ camping trip?'

'The fuckin' campin' trip, you dick–' he paused to yawn again, '–we're gonna be leaving pretty soon. Mokuba said that he asked you and that you were both coming, but we're still fuzzy on the details. To be honest I'm surprised you said yes.'

'WHAT?'

* * *

_*The 'whisper of a memory' relates to events that took place in a two-part fic called 'Open Ether'. All of my Yu-Gi-Oh fics are related to one another and events that occur within them are considered canon within other fics. More reference will be made to 'Open Ether' in later chapters. In a wrist-twisting form of self-promotion, I encourage you to read the aforementioned two-part fic... :p_

* * *

**Author's Note (Original):** I think this fic is going to be a slow burner. I want to make it as believable as possible without disappointing anyone.

Please let me know what you think! I am quite nervous about tackling such an established ship; please let me know if you enjoyed it, if you are looking forward to more, etc. Thanks!

* * *

**Author's Note (6-Feb-11): **This chapter has been revised to eliminate spelling/grammar mistakes and general typing errors. Some paragraphs and sentences have been cut-down or extended to improve the flow of the narrative.


	2. Doctor Mallard

**Author's Note:** Thanks to TatianaSaphira, starwefter and SkySurf for the quick reviews x

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Two**

**Doctor Mallard**

Seto was seething. He was positively livid in a manner that Katsuya had never witnessed before. He eyed Seto like a cat, watching him pace up and down the length of the vast, richly decorated living room, hissing to himself like a mad goose.

'I just – I can't –' he spluttered. 'Why would he _do_ that?'

Katsuya shifted on the plush couch where he had been unceremoniously dumped, feeling a vague blotch of smugness across the forefront of his mind. The corner of his mouth twitched discreetly as Seto continued to demand to the air why Mokuba would ever do such a thing. He could understand the betrayal of a much-loved sibling and how much it could hurt, but anything that managed to get under the insufferable tyrant's skin was good enough for Katsuya. He chuckled hoarsely. Seto's head whipped around and he glared at Katsuya, as if he had forgotten that he had brought him into his home.

'What the Hell are you sneering at, bonkotsu? How dare you sit there all smug when I have brought you to _my _home to be examined by _my_ personal doctor?'

Katsuya quickly grounded himself, reminded of the delicate balance his situation was hanging in. His knees had suddenly become very interesting. Seto quickly returned to his ranting, constantly running a wild hand through his now tousled hair.

'Why the fuck did Mokuba organise all this behind my back, told you all that I said it was okay? I knew _nothing_ about this stupid little _camping_ trip! Least of all agreed to let him go with you and that I would also be coming! I've got a good mind to go and wake him up right now and–'

At that moment, when Seto had halted by the hearth and leant on the mantelpiece with outstretched arms, when Katsuya was just about to complain that he couldn't abide the pain in his arm any longer, a door on one side of the room creaked slowly open. A tall, rotund butler with a large broken nose slid smoothly into the room. Katsuya ogled his pristine white gloves and overly buffed shoes. The butler spoke in a deep, mellow voice.

'Mr Kaiba, Doctor Mallard has arrived.'

'Thank you Ralph,' Seto ground out through gritted teeth. It was evident that he was doing his best to sound courteous. 'Send him through. Please.'

The butler left the room and was replaced by a short, merry man. He was balding on top and time had taken its toll on his jowls, but his small blue eyes twinkled contentedly nonetheless. Katsuya could not take his eyes off the vivid green bow-tie.

'Good evening, Seto,' he said conversationally as he set his brown, leather bag down on the coffee table in front of Katsuya, opening it and rummaging around for something. Seto pushed himself away from the mantelpiece and shuffled over to an armchair, which he flopped into in a strangely undignified manner.

'Hello Ducky.'

'What happened here, then?'

Katsuya opened his mouth to answer the doctor, but Seto spoke first, his voice thick through a wide yawn.

'He fell down the stairs at work.'

The doctor extracted a pair of stethoscopes from his bag and fitted them into his ears.

'I see.' He leant over Katsuya and smiled warmly. 'Please lift your shirt, young man.'

Katsuya gaped at the doctor, his eyes darting to Seto, who was lazily staring at him from his armchair, his chin resting in a hand. He seemed vaguely engaged, as though he was watching a television show that had taken a marginally interesting turn. Katsuya frowned, returning his gaze to the doctor, before lifting the front of his dark work shirt up with his good hand.

The doctor pressed the cold metal to his chest. He flinched, feeling overwhelmingly exposed. He turned his face away from Seto, who was still half-looking at him with idle eyes from his armchair. Katsuya felt very conscious of the cold stethoscope over his heartbeat, he felt conscious of the creases in his stomach as he slouched on the sofa, his small, shy nipples and the trail of hair that ran from his belly-button down into the depths of his trousers. Soon the doctor pulled away and Katsuya promptly returned the front of his shirt to its proper position. There was a long silence as the doctor did some more rummaging in his bag, until Katsuya's inquisitiveness got the better of him.

'Why are you called Ducky?' he asked. 'What does he call you that for?'

The doctor laughed heartily. Seto sighed heavily and shifted in his chair.

'My surname is _Mallard,_ a type of duck.' He spoke like a teacher who enjoyed explaining things. He turned his face to look at Seto briefly. 'I have been Seto's doctor since he arrived in the care of Gozaburo. He was very young, but he knew what a mallard was, and decide that my new name was going to be _Ducky. _He thought it was hilarious, and I embraced it.'

Katsuya glanced over at Seto, who was pointedly staring at a spot somewhere on the other side of the room. He had become tense in his seat, his arms and legs were crossed and a muscle was ticking frantically in his jaw. Katsuya felt his mind wandering through several scenes of a miniature Kaiba laughing uncontrollably at a younger Dr Mallard (with more hair) calling him Ducky and running away from the stethoscope. He felt a small smile tugging at his lips as he remembered the hilarity of running away from the doctors when he was a little boy and then demanding a lollipop at the end of it all, despite the trouble he'd caused.

Once more the door creaked open and a mop of black hair appeared.

'Hey Seto, I bumped into Ralph on the way back from the toilet, he said you were home…'

Seto uncurled from his armchair with thunderstorms in his eyes. He stood to his full, spindly height and glared down at his little brother, who had sensed something was amiss and was half hidden behind the doorframe. Seto spoke in a slow, frosty voice.

'You and I are going to have a little talk, _now.'_

Katsuya could see Mokuba's eyes widen with fear before they darted over to him, widening even further. He didn't have time to react as Seto swept from the room and curtly slammed the door shut. Katsuya winced as he heard the argument begin.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later after much prodding and questioning, Ducky had ascertained that Katsuya had only badly sprained his wrist. He had grown increasingly edgy throughout the examination as the dispute between the brothers heated up, ending with a bellowing Seto and a sobbing Mokuba. As he wrote a prescription for some strong painkillers and started to sling Katsuya's arm the door blasted open and Seto swept through, collapsing in a chair at a long, polished table, his face buried in his hands. The door remained wide open, casting a bright yellow square of light from the corridor into the calmly lit lounge. Mokuba's sobbing carried loudly through the threshold. Seto sagged deeper into his hands, his fingers grasped tightly in his dishevelled hair.

Ducky sighed heavily, finishing his work and gathering his things. Katsuya thanked him, clambering to his feet and bowing gratefully. The doctor smiled, almost sadly, his eyes distracted by Seto's slumped form at the table. Without a goodbye he left the room to be escorted back to his car by another butler who Katsuya hadn't seen before.

Suddenly Katsuya felt very lost. He was now faced with what appeared to be an exhausted and annoyed Seto and a devastated Mokuba. He nervously plucked the hem of his shirt with his good hand, trying to decide what to do. He moved into the corridor, glancing around to see where the weeping was coming from. He found little Mokuba standing against a wall further down the long passage, his back turned to Katsuya, his face in his hands and his shoulders shaking.

'Mokuba…' Katsuya went to him, placing a gentle hand on the back of his head. 'I'm sorry I bust your bubble kid; I was the one who started talking to your brother about the trip… I'm so sorry. We all thought that he must have known.'

'It's n-not your f-f-fault,' Mokuba managed to squeeze out between sobs and hiccoughs. 'I r-really sh-shouldn't have gone behind N-Nii-samas back l-l-like that –'

At that moment Seto emerged from the lounge, his eyes were bloodshot and surrounded by dark shadows, his face was pallid and slack. Katsuya was deeply shocked by how exhausted he looked as he trundled towards them. As he came past he stopped and briefly glared at Jounouchi, but seemed not to have the energy to muster any cruelty. His eyes fell to the carpet, his strict posture was lost.

'I'm so tired,' he mumbled. He turned his gaze to Mokuba, whose tears had almost stopped. He moved to stand in front of his big brother, his hands away from his round, puffy face, his red-rimmed eyes begging forgiveness.

'I'm sorry Mokie,' Seto breathed. He bent awkwardly like a stiff giraffe, wrapping his long arms around Mokuba, who had lurched forward into the embrace, tucking his face into his brother's neck.

'I'm going back to bed now,' Mokuba said, his voice muffled by Seto's neck. Seto pulled back, lifting his brother from the ground and cradling him strangely. Katsuya had shrunk into the shadows, uncomfortable to be standing so close to such a personal exchange involving the most stoic, private person he knew.

'What are we going to do with Jou-kun?'

Katsuya was snapped sharply back from the reverie he had slipped into, worry nibbling at the back of his neck. It was almost one o' clock in the morning; would Seto make him walk home now? Seto let Mokuba back to the ground and stood to his full height once more, glaring down at Katsuya through dark, narrow eyes.

'You may stay in one of our spare rooms. You will be dropped off at your home tomorrow morning. I expect you to be up by eight o' clock so you can share Mokuba's transport.'

Katsuya was reeling. He stared up at Seto's back as he ascended the staircase, Mokuba in front of him.

'What about breakfast?'

Immediately he wished he had thought before speaking. Seto stopped midway up the stairs and stared down at him, cold fury and disbelief cutting cleanly through his exhaustion.

'_Breakfast?' _he hissed. Katsuya panicked. 'Did I not just summon my personal doctor to tend to you? Did you not just receive a free prescription for some expensive painkillers? Did I not carry you to my car and drive you here _myself? _Have I not just stuck my neck out the farthest I ever have for you, more than I probably will ever again?'

All Katsuya could do was imitate a suffocating goldfish. He gawked wide-eyed at Seto, his own fatigue rendering his mind into a sludge-like state and stealing his tongue. His brow hardened.

'Which room?'

Seto sighed and raked his hand though his hair for the millionth time that evening. Mokuba had reached the top of the stairs and was looking down at both of them.

'There's a spare room opposite mine and Seto's. You can go in there, Jou-kun. We'll let Ralph know you are staying, so he can wake you up if you oversleep.'

Katsuya nodded and thanked him, trudging up the stairs behind Seto.

* * *

The spare room was lavishly furnished with deep redwood and sap green wallpaper. Katsuya shifted onto the huge, four-poster bed, kicking his shoes off and testing the plumpness of the numerous pillows. He carefully removed his sling and placed it on the bedside table, where he saw an expensive Tiffany lamp and a gleaming telephone. He was tempted to use the opportunity to ring his little sister and tell her all about what had happened, but felt certain that Seto would walk in halfway through the conversation and use it as an excuse to throw him out by his ear. He looked up as the door handle dipped and the landing light poured into the room.

Seto stood by the door, glaring hard at his 'guest', who was trying to lift the bedcovers and get in with just one arm. Katsuya felt very self-conscious again, as he had when Ducky asked him to lift his shirt earlier. He was aware of Seto's eyes on him as he scrambled under the covers. He kept his dark, glinting eyes on Seto as he shifted around, wriggling to find a comfortable position for his head on the soft pillows. It seemed as though Seto had forgotten why he had come in the room. He was standing with his hand lost on the door handle, a distant look in his misty eyes, his lips slightly parted. He was still staring at Katsuya.

'Did you want something?'

Seto blinked and inhaled sharply. If Katsuya didn't know any better he would say that Seto had fallen asleep on his feet. He turned to leave, but before the door shut his voice wafted through the gap.

'Breakfast is at seven thirty.'

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hope you liked! What did you think? Not as long as the last chapter. I think I'm going to try and get them on the journey to the camp-out in the next chapter. Hmm.

Oh and I love NCIS, by the way.

Please review, or Dr Mallard will strangle you with his stethoscope!

* * *

**Author's Note (6-Feb-11):**This chapter has been revised to eliminate spelling/grammar mistakes and general typing errors. Some paragraphs and sentences have been cut-down or extended to improve the flow of the narrative.


	3. Rutting Bucks and Spindly Chairs

**Author's Note:** Thanks to all the reviewers! xXx

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Three**

**Rutting Bucks and Spindly Chairs**

Katsuya hunched over the wooden kitchen table, glaring, his good wrist wrapped protectively around his bowl of sugary cereal. A pair of steely eyes framed by feathery black hair glared right back at him, just as wary. He tentatively reached for his tall glass of juice, and likewise the woman opposite took a small sip from her tea, suspicious eyes never leaving him. At that moment Ralph strolled through the large kitchen.

'Good morning, Ma'am,' he said courteously to the black haired woman, his head bowing respectfully as he passed her and stationed himself by the coffee machine.

'Morning, Ralph,' she replied. As she drained the last of her tea and leant back into her chair there came the sound of thundering footfalls from the stairs. A moment later and an unbelievably energetic Mokuba bowled into the kitchen. He bounced up to the table, hair flying wildly and face beaming brightly, as though the row between him and his brother the previous night had only been a bad dream.

'Hey Jou-kun! I'm surprised you're up in time!' His pealing laughter made Katsuya wince. He grumbled into his cereal, still staring moodily at the strange woman sat opposite him.

'Morning Auntie Mu!' Mokuba launched himself at the woman and went to peck her on the cheek, which she leant into, a serene smile on her dark lips. 'So you've met Jou-kun?'

'Hmm,' she mused. 'So that's who he is.' Her voice was smooth and elegantly deep. Her silver eyes slid to his face again, a thin black eyebrow arched. More footfalls sounded and Seto slouched into the kitchen wearing black jog pants, a white, long-sleeved t-shirt and the worst mop of ruffled hair that was easily on par with Katsuya's morning hair. Immediately, without having to be told, Ralph began to brew a large, double-shot cappuccino. He was well tuned into his master's needs. By the time Seto had made it to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair beside the Aunt, Ralph was walking over with a large, steaming mug, setting it down neatly in front of him. Then seemingly out of nowhere he produced a small plate filled with two warm croissants, complete with a ramekin of butter, an embroidered napkin and a silver knife.

'Enjoy, Master Kaiba.'

'Thanks, Ralph.'

Katsuya's eyebrows had disappeared towards his hairline. He was taken aback by what he was witnessing. He stared as Seto rubbed the morning blur from his eyes with the back of his hand, yawned widely then loomed over his cappuccino, his horrifyingly long, pale fingers curling slowly around the mug. As he lifted it to his lips his gaze wandered up. He caught sight of Katsuya, who he had sat down opposite.

'_Argh!'_

He startled and spat a mouthful of hot coffee over the table, spilling the rest of the mug over his thigh.

'F-fucking- _fuck!'_

Katsuya gasped, Mokuba and the aunt yelped whilst Ralph rushed to remedy the situation; retrieving a bag of frozen peas and pressing it firmly to Seto's burning thigh.

'Fuck!'

'Calm down, sir –'

'_But Ralph__!'_

Seto flopped back into his chair, grinding his teeth in pain. Ralph continued to press the frozen peas against his thigh, quite calm about the whole ordeal. Katsuya wondered how many times the tall, courteous butler had to deal with these sorts of mishaps. Mokuba stood beside Seto. His hand wavered in front of him, but he seemed almost frightened to reach out and place it on his brother's shoulder. Katsuya caught sight of a fleeting splinter of grief in his grey eyes, before his hand fell to his side once more.

'Is it bad, Ralph?' Mokuba asked quietly, flicking a lock of black hair from his face.

'No,' was the serene reply. 'I'd even be so bold as to suggest that your brother is… overreacting, just a tad…'

Katsuya was stunned by the butler's gall and Seto snarled at Ralph, but said nothing. He groused and contented himself with glaring at the edge of the table, lips pursed and almost pouting in the most childish of silent tantrums. Katsuya fought a smirk. The silence was Seto's own acknowledgement of the truth in Ralph's words. He turned back to his bowl of cereal but it had gone soggy during the commotion. With a vague look of disappointment he pushed it away with his good hand before reclining in his chair. A jolt ran through his chest when he saw the Aunt staring at him intently once more. He stared back at her, before turning to address Seto, who was still pouting at the table. Ralph and the frozen peas were gone.

'Kaiba, I didn't know you had an aunt?'

Seto frowned.

'Neither did I, not until about half a year ago.' Katsuya's silent, confused face asked him to continue. 'She found us. We met. Now she lives with us.'*

The aunt turned to Seto with catlike reserve and spoke in a bored, foreign drawl.

'You're making the whole incident sound entirely uneventful, Seto.' She looked over to Katsuya from where she stood beside her nephew. 'It was tremendously emotional, and this one bawled like a baby,' she ran a hand through Seto's morning hairdo. 'And then he fell asleep in my lap–'

At these words Seto growled and lurched away from his aunt's hand as she stroked his hair. He glared at her hard for a moment, a strange mixture of fury and hurt bending his bright red face, before he turned and marched huffily out of the kitchen as best he could with a burnt thigh and with as much dignity as possible in nothing but baggy jog pants, passing Roland who had arrived in the threshold to take Mokuba to school. They each flinched as he stomped noisily up the stairs and then slammed every door he passed through on the upper floor.

Roland lifted his shades and gazed at the small gathering around the kitchen table, utterly bewildered. Mokuba looked dejected, the aunt quite smug and Katsuya as if he were about to explode, either from laughter or a mindfuck. He looked at the aunt.

'I didn't catch your name?'

She leant over the table and shook Katsuya's good hand, smirking.

'I am Muhoshi, you may call me Mu.'

* * *

'Your Auntie Mu sure likes to tease your brother!'

Mokuba was silent. He had been silent since they got into the limousine quarter of an hour ago and Katsuya knew something was bothering him. He frowned, picking at the corner of his sling, looking though his hair at the boy.

'You still down from your argument with your brother? You seemed okay when you came in the kitchen in this morning, before he got all burnt and grouchy.'

Mokuba shifted in his seat and twisted his head to hide his face behind the great curtain of black hair that fell from his shoulders.

'Mokuba, have you asked him if you can still come camping with us?'

He sagged over, gripping the edge of his seat tightly. Katsuya unbuckled his seatbelt and hoisted himself over to sit beside Mokuba and wrapped his good arm around him. He gave the boy a slight, reassuring squeeze.

'Did he say you couldn't come?'

'I don't know…' Mokuba's voice was small and hurt; he was on the verge of tears. 'I couldn't hear him last night when he was shouting at me, I was too scared of him; I just didn't hear any of the words.'

Katsuya's face was grim. He held Mokuba close to his side.

'Don't worry kiddo. I'm bunking off school today because of my arm, so I won't see your brother again today, but I'll ring him tonight and give him a good earful.'

Mokuba looked up at him. He seemed quite frightened.

'Please don't tell him!' he begged.

'Tell him what?'

'That he scared me, and that I'm still upset about it! He'll get really angry with himself, and then he'll get all awkward with me and avoid me…'

Katsuya frowned, but nodded.

'Okay, I'll only talk to him about letting you on the camping trip with me and the gang.'

He topped his words off with a mighty grin and a one-armed hug. Mokuba hugged him back tightly. The limousine came to halt outside Mokuba's school. He grabbed his bag and hopped out of the door, but before he closed it he leant in and smiled at Katsuya.

'It really shows that you're someone's big brother, Jou-kun!'

Katsuya smiled back, blushing with the lightest shade of pink.

* * *

'Where the frickin' fuck were you last night, boy?'

Katsuya flopped into his spindly chair by the kitchen table, calling back over his shoulder towards the half open bathroom door, where his father was in the tub.

'I stayed around someone else's house.'

'Why didn't you call?'

'I got hurt, look –' Katsuya left the chair and entered the bathroom, holding his sling up as best he could, looking proud as though he was showing off a medal of honour. 'It got sprained after I fell down some stairs at work. My boss took me to his private doctor, so I got free meds!'

'Your boss?' Katsuya's father leaned forward in the bath tub, the vast amount of bubbles shifting and squelching. 'You mean Kaiba Seto? Do you mean you stayed around _his_ house last night? His fucking _manor?_'

'Yeah, it was awesome!' Katsuya paused. 'There _was_ a phone in the room I was put in, but Kaiba was really grumpy and was probably looking for any excuse to get me out of his home, so I didn't dare use it…'

His father nodded, lathering up his arms with a soapy flannel.

'Still can't get over the fact that he's going on your merry little arsewipe of a camping trip next week, I mean, can you imagine _the_ Kaiba Seto in a tent? Haha, shitting in a field like a gypsy!'

'_Dad!' _Katsuya cried in exasperation from where he had seated himself on the toilet lid. He tutted and shook his head. 'Anyway, I don't think he's going. Or Mokuba for that matter. Turns out Mokuba did a sneaky and just pretended that Kaiba was letting him come and that Kaiba was gonna come too. I don't quite know what the kid thought was gonna happen when the time came to actually leave for the trip but oh well, I opened my damn mouth and blew it all. They had a massive row about it last night when the doc was sorting me out. Mokuba was still kinda torn up this morning…'

Katsuya looked thoughtful for a moment. His father splurged a great handful of shampoo into his hand and worked it into his scant amount of hair. Jounouchi stared.

'Dad! _I'm_ the one with hair in this place, what the _Hell_ are you using so much frickin' shampoo for?'

His father looked at him, clueless. He shrugged and continued to rub shampoo over his large bald patch.

'Urgh! Whatever Dad. I gotta call Kaiba and speak to him about the trip anyway, I promised Mokuba I'd do my best to persuade him from the decision he made last night. I guess it might have helped if I had asked Mokuba for his brother's personal number –'

At that moment the phone rang, it's shrill, half-tuned shriek disturbing the otherwise peaceful flat.

'Get the phone, boy. And if it's for me, I'm out.'

Katsuya nodded and shifted from the bathroom to answer the phone. Entering the kitchen once more he returned to the old spindly chair and picked up the receiver from its cradle beside the salt and pepper cellars, which Katsuya had cannily stolen from the K.C. cafeteria.

'Yeah.'

'_Jounouchi residence?'_

'Kaiba?'

'_I'm on my way to your place to speak to you about Mokuba's… incident.'_

Katsuya snarled into the receiver, his short fuse now fractured. 'You mean the trip? And why the Hell do you have to come to my flat, why can't we just speak on the phone about it?'

'_Because having me in your flat will intimidate you, which means I'll probably get my own way.'_

Katsuya's father padded into the kitchen with a towel around his waist, dripping wet and looking curious about the conversation. Katsuya waved an absent hand at him to keep the silence.

'Get your own way about what? I figured you didn't really want to go camping last night when you freaked out at your brother!'

Seto remained silent on the other end of the line. Katsuya growled.

'Gah! When the fuck are you getting here, anyway?'

_Ding dong._

Katsuya froze. Seto's end of the line had gone dead and he would bet his last tattered leaf of cash that it was him on the other side of the door, pressing the doorbell relentlessly.

_Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong…_

Katsuya rounded on his half naked father, wild panic in his eyes, crushing the receiver back into place.

'_Dad!'_ he hissed. 'Go and get dressed for fuck's sake! And don't come out of your bedroom until the fucker leaves!'

His father nodded, a similar panic in his eyes, before scurrying down the corridor and disappearing through a door on the left, nearly losing his towel on the way.

_Ding dong ding dong ding dong…_

'God, that knobhead–'

He rushed to the front door, cursing loudly as he knocked his sprained arm on the doorframe. He flung the door open with his good arm, poised like a sorely provoked bull.

_Ding–_

'Stop that! Get off the fucking doorbell, Kaiba!'

–_dong…_

Seto sneered broadly before sweeping uninvited through the door and past Katsuya, making sure to knock into his sprained arm with a bony elbow. He glanced around, assessing his surroundings. He saw a small living room, well enough kept, a cushion littered the floor as well as a crisp packet and some DVD cases, the sofa throws were messed up, but all in all it looked fairly respectable, for a bonkotsu anyway. Further along the corridor to his right there was a long kitchen. He moved into it, glancing around with narrow eyes. There were several dirty plates by the sink, a window let in scarce amounts of light but a small yellow bulb served its purpose well. The cupboards were plain and the fridge was cramped with as many photographs, letters of absence from the school, bills and tacky magnets as possible. Seto raised a thin eyebrow before elegantly seating himself in a spindly, mismatched chair by the kitchen table.

'I see you've recovered from your little burn Kaiba, and your silly temper tantrum.' Silence. 'That's _my_ chair, dickface.'

Seto remained placid and smug, as catlike and aloof as his taunting Auntie Mu, crossing one knee over the other and smoothly spreading an arm wide to rest on the tabletop. He spotted the K.C. cafeteria salt and pepper cellars on the table and cocked his head in a mock desire for an explanation.

Katsuya glowered at the blatant invasion of his territory. He slowly advanced towards Seto, never breaking eye contact. The cold, blank blue deterred him little. He halted before the arrogant intruder, glaring down upon him, knowing that every flex of his muscle, every twitch of his foot, every clench of his jaw and every blink of his eyelid was being analysed meticulously. This was no more than the calm before the rutting of two bucks. Katsuya knew this game well; he played it often with his father. A subtle battle between them ensued every time their eyes met, the fight for alpha leadership over the household never ceasing. Katsuya would not play this round with his new opponent so subtly.

He made a deliberate display of fist and jaw clenching, before pulling himself back and glaring along his shoulder at the floor, as though he had decided a violent cause would not be the best idea, as though he had backed down and silently handed dominance of the immediate situation to Seto. Katsuya saw Seto shift in his chair slightly, sitting straighter, head held a little higher.

His bluff had succeeded.

SMACK!

Katsuya mustered every droplet of strength in his body and through his good arm he landed the force upon the porcelain cheekbone of his adversary with one, almighty backhand. Seto reeled and crashed to the floor, both his own spindly legs and those of the chair jabbing accusingly at the white ceiling. He quickly scrambled to his feet, his face flushed and furious.

'Do you realise that you have just deliberately displayed an act of physical violence upon your superior? Did you forget that I am your employer? _That I'm your fucking boss?'_

Katsuya stood his ground, but inside his guts churned for all his rising panic. Perhaps it hadn't been a good idea, animalistic instincts and old-time rivalries aside. They stood in silence for a fleeting moment, glaring at each other. They were both breathing heavily like racehorses. Once more the stifling stench of testosterone filled the area, pulsating through the air like a hot, toxic essence.

'I was meant to call you about Mokuba myself,' Katsuya ground from behind gnashing teeth. His tone was acidic. 'I guess you beat me to it.'

Seto's face had set like stone, he remained silent.

'I don't know what you were shouting at him last night. I don't think Mokuba knows what you were saying either, I guess pure terror makes you deaf as well as immobile.'

A ferocious, warning glare greeted him at these words. Seto's face was laced with wholesome loathing and murderous intent. Katsuya's confidence buckled slightly when he saw the crystal blue of Seto's eyes visibly swoop to the dark, stony tint of dead, popping veins. His voice was arctic.

'_Elaborate.'_

'You scared your little brother shitless, Kaiba.' Spittle flew from Katsuya's mouth and he shouted. 'He was shaking in the car this morning, nearly crying. All he wanted to fucking do was go on holiday with his friends and honourable fucking _Nii-sama.'_

Seto's eyes popped and he shouted something unintelligible. Swiftly he regained his composure and raked his claws through his hair, pacing to the end of the kitchen and then back, angular like a wild animal that wants nothing more than to pounce on the untouchable, a cat which knows it cannot kill its master's canary. Seto was quite capable of killing a man with a single blow, but he had deducted that someone else was lingering elsewhere in the household. His current object of loathing had too many friends, was too loud and extrovert to simply slip into the missing persons files.

He paused in front of the fridge, gazing blindly at the door's contents. Katsuya watched him, his brow furrowed.

'Shit, Kaiba. Mokuba certainly had the right mind. You need a holiday. You look like a microwaved corpse.'

Seto half looked at him over his shoulder. His entire presence seemed deflated. He spoke in a raspy, tired voice. It was as though an infection had spontaneously leapt into his voice box.

'I actually came to let you know that I have decided to allow Mokuba to accompany you on your camping trip, and that I want all the details, dates, contact numbers… until you decided to go all caveman on me.'

Katsuya was taken aback.

'Uh, well it's Thursday today,' he muttered. 'We leave by train on Sunday… are you coming too?'

Seto turned fully to look at Katsuya.

'What?'

'I meant what I said, Kaiba. You really do look like you need a break from it all. It's fun to punch you, but the guys and I do worry about you… well, sometimes. Occasionally. Y'know, when we see you on the T.V. and stuff –'

Seto stared at him.

'Come on! Camping's great fun! We're going to Honda's dad's farm, down south a little. He's got a river though his land, we're gonna camp by it. It'll be great! Swimming, open fires, booze…'

_'Booze?__'_

Katsuya stuttered. 'Uh…'

'Well in that case I'm definitely coming – there's no way I'd let Mokuba go near that shit without someone to protect him.'

Katsuya wondered why he didn't just change his mind and not let Mokuba go after all. He quelled his curiosity. 'Honourable fucking Nii-sama indeed. Well in that case Mr Rich Knickers I will write down all the details you need to know about train times et cetera on this attractive post-it note here, and then you can kindly get the Hell out of my home before I feel like I have to deck you to the floor again.'

Seto bared his teeth. 'Yeah thanks for that one Dog Breath, now I have a fat bruise on my face.'

He shuffled over and loomed distractingly behind Katsuya as he scribbled down all the details on the small, yellow piece of paper. Seeing that the note was finished he snatched it from under Katsuya's nose and marched out of the kitchen towards the front door. Without a word he briefly glanced back at Katsuya before slipping away, gently clicking the door shut behind him.

Katsuya's father emerged tentatively from his room, donning a suitable outfit and a befuddled face. He approached his son, his eyes asking something along the lines of 'what the fuck just happened?'

Katsuya just shook his head and pushed the thumb and forefinger of his good hand into his aching sinus.

_DING DING DING DING DONG!_

'KAIBA!'

* * *

_*Auntie Mu and the events which surround her return into Seto's life are detailed in my first ever Yu-Gi-Oh fic, 'Brown Paper Parcel'. It is dire need of revision but if you want to better understand who she is and where she came from, you make want to read it but I suppose it isn't entirely necessary. All of my Yu-Gi-Oh fics are related to one another and events that occur within them are considered canon within other fics. _

_

* * *

_

**Author's Note:** Looooool Seto's such a jerkish little kid. He never grew up really… I hope you liked that chapter, it feels like it goes on forever. I'm sorry about how long it took to update, I'm nearing the end of college and everything is so hectic.

So yeah, review or Jou will backhand you, and then Seto will beat you to death with that spindly chair! I generally consider 10 reviews per chapter an indication of a good fiction so, if you have read this please leave your thoughts! It would be nice to have 10 reviews before I upload the next chapter!

* * *

**Author's Note (6-Feb-11):**This chapter has been revised to eliminate spelling/grammar mistakes and general typing errors. Some paragraphs and sentences have been cut-down or extended to improve the flow of the narrative.


	4. Country Air

**Author's Note:** Thanks to all the reviewers! xXx And I also apologise for the wait, I had the end of my college course and an art show to worry about, and then I got writers block. Le gasp!

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

* * *

**Chapter Four**

**Country Air**

Seto sat quietly in his bed with the covers pulled up to his stomach, propped up by an absurd abundance of pillows. His head was drooping slightly as he let himself lightly doze, the pages of the book in his hand flicking through his slack fingers and his small reading glasses slipping down his long nose; none of which he cared for. Usually he would not allow himself to snooze so carelessly. He had sat down to read a chapter in his book and would have not put the book down, taken his glasses off and settled under the covers until he had read a precise amount of pages. He found that he was far too exhausted and more surprisingly he found that didn't care that he was falling asleep, crumpling the corners of the pages, twisting the frames of his spectacles.

He often wondered how it felt to be a normal person. Perhaps normal people fell asleep like this, unscheduled and accidentally. _For tonight,_ he mused, _I am normal._

_Bbbbbrrrriiiiiiinggg!_

Seto jolted awake as his bedside telephone rang shrilly at him. He squinted at his watch; it was one o'clock in the morning. He knew for a fact that normal people hated ridiculously late telephone calls. Maybe he was more normal than he had originally concluded. Agitatedly he leant over and grabbed the receiver, snarling into it.

'What do you want?'

'_Hey Kaiba, I just thought I'd ring to remind you to get up at the right time in the morning.'_

Seto blanched with fury.

'That sounds a bit rich coming from a slob like _you,_ Jounouchi.'

He heard a hoarse chuckle crackling through the bad line.

'Where are you Jounouchi? The connection is terrible.'

There was a pause, he heard Katsuya inhaling slowly.

'_Oh I'm on my mobile,'_ he said nonchalantly. _'Electricity got cut again.'_

Seto frowned. 'Your electricity is cut?' He laughed. 'Why, can't you pay your bills?'

There was a much longer pause than before.

'_No no,'_ came the same nonchalant tone. _'It's a problem with the tower block I live in, it's old.'_

Through experience Seto could tell that Katsuya was lying and he felt a strange pang for it. He quickly decided to change the topic.

'So you rang to remind me of tomorrow's details? Get on with it, then.'

* * *

'Come on Seto, we'll be late!'

'I am never late. Only if I decide to be, Mokuba. I will not be late today because I have no power over the commercial train schedules. Well I do, but it's quite the hassle to flex that particular muscle. I'd need a better reason that "I'm going to be late because I ate my breakfast too slowly so could you hold the 10am train from Domino to the arse-end of nowhere for me please…"'

Mokuba ogled at Seto as he hopped down the stairs, amusement, exasperation and disbelief on his face all at once.

'Nii-sama,' he said seriously. 'You're rambling.' He flung open the door of a nondescript black car that had pulled up at the bottom of the manor steps and hopped inside as Roland lugged his suitcase into the boot. Seto stared at the car.

'Where's the limo?'

Roland looked a little sheepish, scratching the back of his sea-green hair.

'Well you see sir, I've tried to get the limo into the train station drop-off bay before… didn't work sir. It didn't fit and ended up drawing too much attention.'

Seto sniffed in disdain and eyed the car they'd be using instead. He had no idea what type it was, but at least it looked modern and had been ridiculously burnished, not too dissimilar from Roland's shoes in fact.

'Is this your car, Roland?' he asked as he sidled around the back and hawkishly watched the man arranging the suitcases in the boot. He spotted a tiny pink Wellington boot thrown carelessly in as well, along with an old umbrella, various empty plastic shopping bags, a manual for puppy care and a child's toy.

'This _is_ your car Roland.'

Roland glanced at him through his sunshades.

'Yes it is sir; I thought it would be adequate?'

'I'm sure it's fine,' Seto mumbled. He reached into the boot and hooked out the pink welly with one hand and looked it over, and then inspected the toy, a fluffy unicorn with pink hooves and hair.

'I take it you have a baby girl, Roland.'

'Yes, sir. Two of them, sir. That belongs to the five year old.'

Seto put the welly and the unicorn back into the boot and moved around to take his seat in the front passengers seat. Mokuba leant forward and peered at him through the gap between the two front seats.

'Since when do you sit up front next to the chauffeur?'

Seto turned to look at his little brother. He felt strange as unwanted memories rose to the surface.

'I sit in the front since… well you know.' He turned away and looked out at the early sun peering over his vast lawn. The dew sparkled gold. 'You shouldn't have to ask, Mokuba.'

As Roland opened his door and folded into the driver's seat Mokuba leant back, staring hard at the back of Seto's head and wondering about the many things his brother would have to put up with on the trip, whether or not he'd be able to deal with it and whether or not his short fuse would ruin it for all of them. He huffed lightly, his teeth worrying the side of his bottom lip. He just wanted Seto to have a nice time.

'What are you going to do about them?' he asked quietly as the car pulled away from the lofty manor. They drove slowly down the stretching driveway. A thinner road further inside the grounds lead to their small stable yard and Mokuba watched their black-haired stable lad walking a vast golden horse to the paddock which lay beyond the brow of a hill, much further away. He glared after the boy's back. Seto hadn't answered.

'Seto?'

'What am I going to do about what, Mokuba?'

'Your scars,' he said bluntly. 'You've got a scars Seto, and everyone knows about the big one. We're going to be doing swimming and sunbathing and things like that.'

Seto shifted in his seat. His fingers ghosted over his shirt which covered the white, puckered scar on his stomach. It was a relic of a failed assassination attempt which had taken place a few months earlier. Like his younger brother, he had been watching after the black-haired stable lad who was another relic of that night. He was strange, waif-like hostage, one who had presumably been held for a much longer expanse of time in that hell house where the attack took place.

After the attack, the boy had also escaped the house to follow Seto and Roland as they sped away from their nightmare in the limo. Seto remembered the pale blurry streak his face had been in the thorny hedgerow as he and Roland drove by. He had ordered the limo to stop immediately and let the boy in, unable to escape the image of him being strangled by the would-be assassin only moments before Seto himself was stabbed in the stomach with a rusty blade.* For the first time in a long time, Seto had allowed sympathy to overtake his reasoning – he had adopted the boy and put him to work in the stables where his silent manner went well with the horses. Seto supposed this bizarre act of charity was the nonsensical sort of stuff near death experiences did to people.

The memories made his head reel. The roar of the media after those events still deafened him in his dreams, and everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of 'The Scar'. He sighed.

'I guess I just won't do any sunbathing or swimming.'

Mokuba rubbed his eye. 'But I've spoken to Honda and Jou, they say the only thing to do down there _is_ sunbathe and swim…'

'All right then,' Seto snapped a little harshly. 'I'll just keep a shirt on.'

An uneasy silence descended upon the car and lasted until they reached the Domino train station where low, grey clouds had blotted out the sunlight. Seto sighed heavily, already the trip felt as though it was going downhill and no one had even boarded the train.

* * *

'Hey, there he is! Hey Kaiba-kun! Over here!'

Seto scowled blackly at Yuugi as he headed towards the platform which corresponded with the number on his ticket. Immediately he noticed that everyone seemed to have brought more than he and Mokuba had. He stopped a few feet away from the group and pushed the handle of his trundle case back into place. He let his eyes wander over the people that he would have to be holidaying with; he knew that Jounouchi Katsuya, Honda Hiroto and little Yuugi would be coming, which meant that Mazaki Anzu would undoubtedly come as well, and there she was with her impossibly short skirt and pointed bosom. His eyes lingered a little while longer on Kawai Shizuka, Katsuya's sister, and Otogi Ryuji the Dice Master. He hadn't quite expected those two to go on the trip; then again he hadn't really expected himself to go either.

'Hey guys!' Mokuba near shouted. A few business looking types glared in annoyance and then looked a little shocked when they saw Kaiba Seto standing on the platform with a group of teenagers wearing black jeans and a long-sleeved black tee, a trundle case at his heel, looking every bit the part of a young person who was about to go on holiday with his friends. Some of them huddled together and muttered under their breaths, stealing glances out of the corners of their eyes. One even plucked up the nerve to discreetly unfold his camera phone and snap some photographs. Seto felt strangely naked and powerless without his swooping coat tails and high shoulder pads and found that he could not muster one of his famous death glares.

He shifted impatiently from one foot the other as he checked the time on his ticket. It read 10.15am and the platform clock read 10.13am. With only two minutes to endure, he pointedly glared in the opposite direction from the gossiping business men, who probably worked for him anyway, in the hopes that their photos of him would not be recognised without his face on them. After all, he was just a big, frowning trench coat to most people.

'Hey Kaiba, where's all your stuff?'

He turned and gazed icily into Katsuya's face.

'It's in my suitcase, idiot.'

He caught Hiroto's annoyed face out of the corner of his eye and saw him mumble something.

'Yeah man,' continued Katsuya, 'but I told you to bring food didn't I? When I rang you last night?'

Seto's face went pale, but he kept his expression rigid. He could not for the life of him remember Jounouchi saying anything about bringing food. He was after all incredibly tired when the phone rang. He subtly peered at some of the bags that Shizuka and Anzu had resting against their legs and sure enough he could see tinned food, super noodles, soup and breads. He did some quick thinking.

'I brought money with me,' he said smoothly. 'I assume that it would be possible to get to some sort of supermarket? We're not really going to be in the middle of nowhere are we?' He looked at Hiroto, who stuttered a little before answering.

'Yeah man, it's a fory-five minute drive but my dad keeps an old Saxo for me at the farm.'

Seto nodded. 'Good. I figured I could contribute to the chilled foods. I am also assuming that we could find a cool-box at your father's place?'

Hiroto nodded and Seto turned back to Katsuya.

'Well, there you go.'

At that moment a yellow and red-faced train with silver flanks rumbled into the station, wheels screeching on the rails and the engine roaring loudly Seto glowered; he hated public transport. In front of him Ryuji gave Yuugi an almighty elbow in the upper arm and laughed when he saw the red writing on the side of the train.

'A _Virgin_ train Yuugi! Just right for you!'

He along with Hiroto and Katsuya cackled loudly as Anzu and Shizuka looked both annoyed and sympathetic. Seto watched the rising blush on Yuugi's face and smirked.

* * *

'You got bread everywhere, man.'

'Dude, I was hungry.'

Seto was glaring again. They had chosen seats with forced him to sit next to someone and opposite two others. Currently he sat next to Mokuba on the window side, with Yuugi directly opposite and Katsuya next to him. The rest were on similar seats over the other side of the aisle. It seemed as though Hiroto had attacked a loaf of bread already and was now suffering Ryuji's berating. What had he got himself into? He pushed his thumb and forefinger into his sinus, deciding he didn't want to be quite as normal as this.

'Are you okay, Kaiba-kun?'

Seto looked up into a pair of wide, violet eyes. Yuugi leant forwards with a worried look on his face and spoke in a low tone.

'Are you sure you're going to be alright on this trip?'

Seto all but gaped. It felt odd that Yuugi, who had grown ashen and dark-eyed over the past month, should be asking him whether he was going to be alright.** He leant forward to match Yuugi's engaged stance. He could tell that Mokuba was listening subtly, but Katsuya was busy having a bread fight with Hiroto and Ryuji. He spoke quietly.

'Yuugi,' he murmered. 'Are you sure _you're_ going to be alright?'

Yuugi blushed and leant back in his chair, fiddling with the antenna on his mobile phone on which he had been playing solitaire. His other hand absent-mindedly rested on the large Puzzle that hung around his neck. Seto forced himself not to look at it.

'I'll be fine, I think I need this holiday,' he whispered. Seto had to strain to hear him. 'Thank you for asking, Kaiba-kun.'

Seto nodded and leant back also, gazing out of the window at the passing scenery. As much as he hated to admit it as he watched the tall buildings of Domino blend into the horizon beyond trees and smaller towns, his KC Tower a mere needle jutting out over the faint patch of glass and metal in the distance, he felt that he probably needed this holiday as much as Yuugi did. He cautiously eyed Jounouchi; now celebrating the use of both of his arms, and let his finger lightly brush the fading bruise on his cheekbone. He wasn't sure whether he should thank Mokuba's sly holiday planning or Katsuya's tremendous backhand for the fact that he was going on holiday away from everything that he had become so used and immune to. Neither the slyness nor the backhand was less than bitter at the back of his throat.

* * *

After five hours of train journeying and three change-overs, the group was standing on the platform of the tiniest station that Seto had ever seen in his life. It wasn't really a station; it was just a concrete stop with a small shed where one may have purchased tickets at some point in the past. It didn't look like it got used anymore. Seto supposed people just bought their tickets from the collector on the train these days. He glanced around him. They were surrounded by tall trees and the small road the lead past the 'station' was yet to support a single car.

Seto felt a horrid pang of something inside his chest. He flinched a little when a bold tanuki darted over the train tracks, winced when he heard the birds and crickets chirping whilst the trees whispered about him to each other through their leaves. Everything was nauseatingly familiar. His eyes grew wide and his face very pale. If only the world could feel his heartbeat, he could power an entire town with it. He must have been breathing heavily and loudly too, because he suddenly felt Mokuba's hand grasping his arm and squeezing hard.

'_Seto?'_ he asked urgently. _'Seto? What's wrong?'_

He looked up and saw that Yuugi and Katsuya were also looking at him apprehensively, their eyes wide, curious and cautious. He leant closer to Mokuba and gushed a panicky hiss into his ear.

'It sounds the same Mokuba, the trees and the birds and bugs and stuff – it sounds just like when – oh my god –'

On the other side of the train track Seto had just noticed nestling between the tall trees the ivy-clad façade of an imposing country manor, it looked frighteningly similar to the house where his assassin had trapped him, killed two of his men and then stabbed him, the house that he had willingly entered under the pretence of a business meeting with a new industry rival.

'Seto,' Mokuba said, 'we are not in the same part of the country as the place where that happened. The police found that place didn't they? That man is dead now.'

Seto felt his knees wobbling. He bent over, adrenaline flooding through his guts, he felt as though he would vomit. Panting heavily he saw black eating at the edges of his vision until he could barely see at all. He heard Yuugi panicking and someone shouting. Suddenly he felt the sensation of vertigo drop through his body, scorching his brains and flipping his stomach over.

'_He's hyperventilating –'_

'_What the fuck's wrong with him?'_

'_Is he having a panic attack?'_

He felt a sharp pain at the back of his head before the blackness covered what little was left of his vision and the voices suddenly went out.

* * *

'Okay lads, I think he should stay in the house tonight.'

'What happened Honda-sama? He just dropped like a fly.'

'It's these city types. They get a whiff of real country air and it knocks 'em out.'

'Seriously?'

Seto frowned slightly. That sounded like Katsuya. Where was he?

'Oh aye,' came the stout reply. This man had a very thick accent and Seto did not recognise it. 'Seen it happen all the time.'

He cracked an eyelid and was glad that someone had been smart enough to draw the curtains.

'He's waking! Nii-sama! Nii-sama, are you okay?'

'Mokuba… urgh, my head –'

Suddenly a mop of straw hair obscured his vision.

'Yo Kaiba, you're in Honda-sama's house – that's Honda-kun's dad. You fainted at the platform just when he came in the car to collect us.'

'That's right, Jou,' chipped in Mr Honda. 'I think you should stay in the house tonight, you gave yourself a nasty knock on the head. No blood or nuthin', but you fell hard, see.'

Seto sat up quickly, perhaps a little too quickly than he should have when he felt a sledge hammer giving all its worth against the inside of his skull. Mokuba's clammy hand was clutching his tightly.

'I think I'll be fine,' he said stiffly through gritted teeth. 'How long was I out?'

Yuugi piped up this time, his wan face stricken and his eyes darker than before. 'The whole of the car journey, which was only about fifteen minutes, and then about five minutes here. So around twenty all together, Kaiba-kun.'

'Urgh.' Seto pushed a hand against his sweaty brow. 'I think I just want to get on with the damn holiday to be honest,' he croaked. 'Where are we setting up camp?'

Everyone exchanged awkward glances; they all knew that nobody would be able to change his mind so easily. Hiroto leant forward over Mokuba's shoulder.

'Come on man, we'll show you. It's real nice.'

* * *

*_You can read more about the black-haired boy in my two-part fic called 'Open Ether', he was also briefly mentioned in the oneshot 'Siphon'. All of my Yu-Gi-Oh fics are related to one another and events that occur within them are considered canon within other fics._

_** To understand the interaction between Yuugi and Seto in this chapter, you may want to read my three-part fic 'Ojiisan'. There will be deeper explanations later in this fic, but you may benefit from reading it. You might want to read 'Suzume, Darling' as well, but this is not fully necessary (and that fic really, really needs revising!)._

* * *

**Author's Note:** Oh my gosh I'm so sorry about the weird ending. I've just been so desperate to update. You might get another chapter by next week – hopefully! I wanted to have them pitching tents and skinny-dipping in this chapter, but then I decided that Seto was gonna have a panic attack and it all seemed like too much action. I'm also sorry about how slow the SetoxJou interaction is going, but that won't really start until Seto realises that he has to share a tent with Jou in the next chapter. Please bear with me!

Please review! Or you'll have a panic attack and then Honda will eat all your bread. Thanks!

* * *

**Author's Note (6-Feb-11):**This chapter has been revised to eliminate spelling/grammar mistakes and general typing errors. Some paragraphs and sentences have been cut-down or extended to improve the flow of the narrative.


	5. Shameless

**Author's Note:** Thanks to all the reviewers and all those who have put the story on Alerts and Favourites! xXx I also apologise for the wait, I got writers block again. I have also got _Rubisora_ to thank for clarifying the order of names in Japan, I got a bit confused. Apparently Jou's first name is actually Katsuya and 'Jounouchi' is the surname instead, and Honda's first name is Hiroto… It seems strange that Yuugi would call his best friends by their surnames whilst everyone else calls him 'Yuugi' and not 'Mutou'. I don't understand! I will try and use the names correctly from now on and rectify the previous chapters later.

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing and nudity.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Five**

**Shameless**

Lead by Mokuba who in turn was lead by Hiroto and Katsuya with the rest of the party behind them, Seto suddenly felt unnervingly detached from his body. This situation was so alarmingly different to him; everything he was familiar with could not be seen for a mile. To their left they had passed the large farmhouse, its weathered redbrick and wooden window panes seemed to gaze back at him as he looked over his shoulder. He was afraid that he would again be reminded of the terrible, ominous manor belonging to his once would-be assassin but he only managed to deduce the craggy smile of an friendly old person from the decrepit exterior, the vines and creeping rose bushes seeming to be the only things holding the building together.

Brought to his sense as he stumbled over the stones of the farmyard he looked forward to where he was going and saw a few barns to one side, behind that a field which stretched up the slope of the valley, rising above them. Across the green blanket he saw a scattering of sheep and a handful of ponies. A strange feeling came over him as he stared straight into the eyes of the stormy grey pony which had looked up from its grazing, ears pert. His moment was stolen however as a goose hissed sharply from a hidden location near the barns, making him jump.

'Kaiba, are you sporting suitable footwear?' Katsuya called from the front where he jostled lightheartedly with Hiroto, laughter disturbing his words. 'We've got to go down through the fields and then take a muddy path to where we'll be camping.' He and Hiroto pushed at the metal five-bar gate, allowing everyone through. It creaked eerily as it was pushed shut again. 'Watch out for sheep shit!'

At this he along with Hiroto and Ryuji cackled maniacally. Seto frowned, slightly confused. Were they laughing at him? His eyes darted to his feet; he was wearing what he would call robust, black boots. They were nice and anyone else would be sore to spoil them he suspected, but to him they were disposable. One of the things he had remembered from Katsuya's late call was to bring suitable footwear. The three boys were still laughing as Yuugi chatted quietly with Anzu and Shizuka. Suddenly paranoid he glanced around, convinced that the object of the laughter and the topic of the conversation was him, perhaps even the sheep who had paused in their grazing as they passed through had only stopped to glance at him and the absolute monstrosity of a misfit he was, here in this quaint valley where the houses had old faces, the ponies could peer into the souls of people and the air caused panic to rise in the hearts of weaklings–

'_Nii-sama!'_

Seto blinked. The back of him felt strange and scratchy and in front of him was an expanse of blue sky, blocked by Mokuba's large head of raven hair.

_Did I fall over?_

'It's quite steep Nii-sama, did you slip?'

Seto frowned.

'I guess so,' he mumbled. 'I still feel a bit dizzy from before.'

Behind Mokuba he saw Yuugi appear, looking down at him and then Katsuya too. Neither said a thing, but merely stared. Seto supposed they were soaking up the odd picture of the KC president laying flat on his back on the side of quiet valley with only the singing of birds and bleating of sheep to listen to. Quickly he returned to his feet, brushing stray grass from his clothes and picking it from his hair before checking himself all over for the stain of sheep shit. He had ascertained his cleanliness by a mere split second before a mass of black fur and saliva leapt at him, knocking him over.

'ARGH!' he shrieked, terror taking him in a single bite. _'Get it off! Get it off!'_

Hiroto appeared then, taking lead of the situation. He was laughing heartily.

'Relax, Kaiba! It's only Mopsa!'

Now fully frozen with fear and unable to move even if he wanted to, Seto opened his eyes to look at the thing which had bowled him over, worry making his brow quiver. He came nose to nose with a bright-eyed black mongrel. Her ears were floppy and she was thin and lean, part western racer perhaps. She was panting her putrid breath all over his face and wagging her bony tail ten-to-the-dozen. Seto made a face, his fear melting away.

'And I thought I would only have to put up with one dog on this holiday,' he drawled, staring pointedly at Katsuya. Despite the rude remark Hiroto grinned, throwing his head back with a bark of laughter.

'Haha! Well if that's so, you're in for some more bad news, here come the others!' He pointed back up the steep slope of the valley towards the farmhouse where Seto could see two more dogs gambolling in their direction; one was a border collie who he would later discover was named Fly and the other was a sturdy black-faced akita called Bear.

His heart deflated amidst the gales of laughter.

* * *

'Nii-sama, I'm sorry! I thought you packed it!'

'No, I thought _you_ packed it!'

They had reached the camping site, which Seto found pleasant enough considering his company. All around were ancient camphor trees through which the lazy river had meandered. There was a vast clearing in the middle of the trees filled with tall yellow grass, a selected portion of which they had been stamping flat to make a space to pitch their tents. It was at this point that the Kaiba brothers had stumbled upon a snag. Both had thought the other had packed the two-man tent.

Having stamped down an adequate amount of grass, those who had been left behind whilst the luggage was being fetched had made a number of suggestions. Right now none of the plans were appealing to Seto, who insisted that he was to share to Mokuba.

'But Seto,' Mokuba said in a small voice. 'I told Yuugi that I would share with him.' Seto's eyes widened but narrowed once more as Mokuba leant in closer to murmur something under his breath. 'Either that or he said he has to share with Anzu and he's scared she might… _do_ something to him…'

Seto smirked, taking the meaning in. He thought it through for a few moments, gazing over the top of the tall grass as he awaited the arrival of their luggage. He leant down to whisper back to Mokuba. 'Why can't Yuugi go in with Jounouchi?'

Mokuba shook his head. 'Jou wants to share with Shizuka because Honda and Otogi are both after her, he's afraid that if he doesn't share with her one of them will try it on with her –'

Seto scowled. 'Well then Kawai can go in with Mazaki, Jounouchi with Yuugi and Otogi and Honda together. Then it's me and you together. Problem solved.'

'Nii-sama…'

Seto leant back and gazed down at his little brother, an unsettling feeling growing inside him at the look of doubt in the grey eyes. Behind him he could hear Hiroto, Katsuya and Ryuji hooting from inside the farm truck as they slowly drove down the sloping sheep fields towards the clearing. He ignored them.

'Mokuba?'

There was a strange, resigned look on his little brother's face that was at the same time firm and unmoving.

'Seto, if you stay with me the whole time during this trip you'll just use my company as an excuse not to spend time with the others. That's not why I wanted you to go on holiday, just to scowl at everyone from my side like you do at home.'

Seto blinked, his crossed arms falling limp at his sides. What was his brother saying? He didn't have time to respond however, for at that moment the farm truck backed up towards them, Hiroto honking on the loud horn as Katsuya and Ryuji jumped out to start pulling luggage from the back, along with extra items such as several crates of beer and a cool-box. Seto double checked his and Mokuba's belongings, they well and truly had forgotten their tent and it seemed that Mokuba was determined to make him share with one of the other holidayers. At this moment he couldn't choose one at all, not even if all three of his Blue Eyes depended on it.

* * *

Seto glanced around. Shizuka was helping her brother pitch the tent he had brought, Hiroto had roped Ryuji into helping him put up his tent whilst Mokuba helped Anzu (Seto noticed that he was blushing furiously the whole time) and Yuugi was tackling his alone, to no avail so it seemed. There were four tents and that was enough for the eight of them, but he still had to choose someone to share with. Sighing heavily and feeling like a useless, lumbering idiot for just standing around doing nothing he carefully picked his way over to Yuugi, careful not to step on anyone's luggage or the three dogs that were excitedly darting around the half-constructed campsite.

'Yuugi,' he said as he reached the short boy. 'You look like you're struggling.'

Yuugi dropped the edges of the tent that he was faffing around with in a defeated manner. Seto was surprised to see despair on that small, round face, his brow deeply scrunched and his chin shaking. Fearing a tirade of tears, which he had witnessed before, tried to consol and simply couldn't stop, Seto quickly picked up the edges of the tent, attempting a smile. All he managed was a lopsided grimace.

'I'll do this,' he said with determination. Yuugi blinked at him, his Puzzle pendant searing in the sun. Seto had to squint his eyes against it.

'You've put tents up before, Kaiba-kun?'

'No, but I'm clever. I can do it. Watch me.'

And he did, finishing before anyone else despite having started after them all. He stood back, smirking at his handy work, feeling smug that those who had laughed at him earlier were now flustered and irritated as they continued to struggle with guy-ropes and energetic dogs who relentlessly wanted to play fetch with the pegs. Sniggering he turned to Yuugi and spoke into his ear discreetly.

'Mokuba won't let me share tents with him. He says I need to socialise. Can I go in with you?'

Yuugi gasped and a guilty expression stained his face. Seto's heart sank for the millionth time that day.

'Don't tell me,' he muttered darkly. _'You're_ sharing with Mokuba.'

* * *

A clear, starry night had fallen over the campsite. The tents had been set up in a vague semi-circle and at the front they had allocated the spot for their openfire.

Earlier before sunset Mokuba and Yuugi had eagerly offered to find logs for them to sit on whilst Hiroto and Ryuji decided to show off in front of Shizuka by stripping their shirts and chopping firewood off a fallen tree with two small axes from the farm truck. Needless to say, she was more interested in skimming pebbles across the river and laughing as the dogs tried to catch the splashes. Anzu had quickly satisfied herself with soaking up what heat she could before the sun fell completely. Seto had sat moodily on the large, tartan rug next to the fire, having been assigned as the person who was not allowed to let the fire die until the wood collectors returned. Katsuya had also settled on the rug and was quite content to snooze at Seto's side, sprawled on his back with his now healed arm slung across his midriff. Seto watched out of the corner of his eye as Katsuya's other hand carelessly fondled with the deep golden hair at the side of his head.

Since then everyone had gathered around the fire, spreading out more rugs and perching on logs that Yuugi and Mokuba had found. They had just finished a dinner of fresh eggs from the farm cooked with rice and were now basking in the warmth of their fire. Seto scowled at Hiroto, Ryuji and Katsuya as they cracked open cans of lager which hissed and frothed everywhere, necking them furiously, the winner crushing the can against his forehead and yelling his victory. He glanced over to Mokuba, afraid that the boy may suddenly sprout into a binge-drinking hooligan at the sight of such an ungainly pastime, but he was instead chuckling animatedly with Shizuka and Anzu. His forgotten, toasted marshmallow had long since burnt away in the fire and now he just held a burning twig.

Seto was just about to ask Yuugi if he could have Mokuba back to share a tent with before Hiroto called for attention. He held his arms aloft as a signal for silence; a dripping lager can in each hand. His face was serious.

'First night!' he bellowed, the drink slurring and cracking his voice. Everybody hooted and cheered. Seto remained silent, scowling into the embers. 'And we all know what that means!'

The trio of lager drinkers immediately leapt to their feet, laughing and jumping whilst Anzu and Shizuka giggled, rising to their feet also, only to giggle even more and point. Seto realised with a bullet of horror that Katsuya, Hiroto and Ryuji were stripping down, kicking their clothes off in the general direction of the tents and suddenly the girls were just down to their underwear. Seto, stricken with shock, turned to Yuugi who he had been sitting beside only to yelp with fright to find him topless, battling with the zip of his trousers.

'_Yuugi!'_ he gasped. _'What's going on?'_

Yuugi's head shot up and he leant in surprisingly close to Seto, swaying slightly. Seto caught a strong whiff of alcohol on his breath and noticed three empty cans of lager and an alcopop bottle scattered by his knees. _How could I have not noticed Yuugi drinking these?_

'Oh!' was the fuzzy reply. 'Well Kaiba-kun, it's traditional to skinny-dip on the first night!'

'WHAT?'

Seto turned to grab Mokuba, intent on not allowing his innocent little brother to splash around with nude bodies, only to catch sight of his pale, naked arse streaking through the trees towards the river, his howls of laughter trailing behind him as Ryuji, Hiroto, Shizuka and Anzu followed, all just as naked.

'Mokuba!' he cried out. Floundering urgently for a solution to the wildness he turned back to Yuugi who was now down to his boxers. _'Yuugi!' _he hissed in exasperation, desperately trying to ignore Katsuya out of the corner of his eye who was fully naked, staggering around as he tried to extricate himself from his boxers which were entangled around his heels. 'Mokuba's only little! He's my little brother, he can't go skinny-dipping with _you_ lot!'

Yuugi chuckled thickly. He brazenly shoved his boxers down his legs to the ground and kicked them off. He stood unabashedly in his full nakedness, the Millennium Puzzle glimmering and tingling madly against his small chest.

'Mokuba is fourteen years old, Kaiba-kun, nearly fifteen. I'm sure he's seen naked people before! He'll be fine!'

At that moment a hoarse cry rang through the air from the river followed by the sounds of violent splashing. Seto tensed, fearing the worse.

'_My balls!'_ It was Hiroto's voice. _'Damn, it's fucking cold!'_

Seto panicked. Right now he was the only with all his clothes on and he was sitting under the same firelight as a very naked Katsuya who was rummaging in the entrance of his tent for something, quite unashamed of himself and Yuugi, just as shamelessly naked, standing proudly like the Peter Pan right in front of his former dueling rival. Seto tried not to stare and instead focused on the empty cans and bottle at his feet. _He can't be that drunk, can he?_

'I –' he stammered. 'Why are you doing this?'

'Because it's tradition!'

'No,' Seto mumbled. 'I mean the booze, why are y–'

'I'm sorry Kaiba-kun, I can't really hear you; the Pharaoh is screaming blue murder at me! He's telling me to put my clothes back on and to get in the tent, haha! Oh well,' he said cheerily. 'I guess I should take this off.' He casually took the Millennium Puzzle from his thin neck. 'I'd rather not lose it in the river in the middle of the night!' He placed it on the rug beside Seto, wobbling dangerously on his feet. 'Doesn't look like you'll be joining us Kaiba-kun, so keep an eye on that for me will you?'

'Yuugi –'

But he was gone, another white streak of naked flesh running for the water's edge beyond the giant camphor trees. Seto staggered to his feet in a daze. To say that he was entirely bewildered was an understatement; he nearly saw stars for all the shock that was coursing through him. The sounds of mumbling from the darkened tent area caught his attention. He squinted into the blackness and saw the pale shape of Katsuya, still naked, hunched over on all fours in front of his tent.

'Ooooh god…' he muttered into the crushed grass beneath him. Seto eyed him warily before looking over to where he had been sitting earlier and saw a considerable mound of cans and bottles, guessing that Katsuya had drank his fair share of them. He looked back to Katsuya again, vaguely intrigued this time. He edged closer with a rug from the fireside in his hand. Despite his inquisitiveness it was clear disdain that showed on his face.

'Jounouchi,' he said harshly. 'I've never seen anything so undignified.' He threw the rug at the body, covering the unabashed nudity. 'I remember you were angry at simply having to lift your shirt for Ducky at my manor. Now here you are with your dick out and your arse in the air. You're disgusting.'

Katsuya only moaned. He pushed his forehead into the ground, clutching fists of long, trodden grass. 'Don't feel good…' he whimpered. 'Gonna be sick…'

Seto stammered. It wouldn't do well to allow Katsuya to vomit in the middle of the campsite. Frantically he shot about, looking for somewhere to drag Katsuya, but it was too late, he was gurgling and whining and something was already dripping out of his nose. In a last ditch attempt Seto snatched the rug from Katsuya's back and laid it out on the ground under his face, just in time as he spilled his stomach. Seto scrunched his nose in repulsion, turning away from the stooped, naked form as it vomited into the centre of the rug. When it was over Seto gingerly gathered the soiled rug like a sack, careful to only hold it by the tips of his fingers and thumbs, and took it beyond the edge of the campsite and let it down in the tall grass. To his loathing one of the dogs bounded out of nowhere and began to sniff enthusiastically at the filthy package.

With his own stomach churning slightly, Seto returned to the firelight to find Katsuya on his side. He was curled like a dead fetus, his flesh blushing under the glow of the fire. Seto snorted. He advanced upon Katsuya and bent to slap him brutally on the hip. Katsuya cried out, expelled a stream of hideous swearwords and then curled up even tighter.

'How pathetic,' he spat. He stormed over to the fire and fed some wood to it, trying to ignore the laughing and splashing from the river. 'You owe me really big time, Jounouchi,' he snarled. 'Let me spell it out, I'll count how many favours you owe me.' He ticked some numbers off his fingers. 'Nine. You owe me nine favours. One, I employed you, that's a _huge_ favour considering who you are and how stupid and lowly you are. Two, I carried you to my car when you fell down the stairs, which was _your_ fault. Three, I drove you to my manor. Four, I called Ducky out in the middle of the night – _are you listening?'_

Katsuya merely muttered something incomprehensible. He was falling over the brink into slumber. Seto sighed, rubbing his temples. 'Whatever,' he mumbled. 'My point is that you owe me favours. Now… I need a tent to sleep in. I'm sharing your tent, Jounouchi.'

Katsuya made a slurred protest, rolling over onto his front, flapping his arms in objection. 'No no no,' he garbled. 'My sister –'

Seto's eyes widened at the lolling nudity, unable to look elsewhere. 'Uh… Uh, she can share with Mazaki. I'm going to put her luggage in – in, uh… in Mazaki's tent…'

He did just that, grabbing the gaudy, pink suitcase, its various charms and key rings jangling. He dumped it at the entrance of Anzu's pale blue tent and then grabbed his own luggage and tossed it into Katsuya's tent, which was grey and red. He fished around in the side pockets of his suitcase for a torch and shone it inside. Katsuya had already managed to strew his stuff around everywhere and there were cigarette burns on the sides of the interior. It was musty and there was a suspicious, pale stain on one end from a previous trip he assumed. Seto huffed and crawled inside. He flicked a tab on his torch and the plastic casing unfolded, transforming it into a small, stand-alone lantern. He placed it by his knees and swept Katsuya's stuff to one side.

_I won't have time to inflate the air mattress,_ he mused with annoyance. _I should have done it earlier. Tonight will be rough._

He peered back out of the tent at Katsuya who was still sprawled on his back. Seto was horrified by the sight of lying there, snorting and twitching in his apparent sleep.

'You dirty bastard!' he barked. He went to Katsuya's bag and bravely shoved his hand into it, searching for some underpants or pajama bottoms. His arm retreated and in his grasp was a pair of faded, black boxers. He flung them at Katsuya, growling.

'Put those on, you filthy dog and get in the fucking tent. I'm sick of this fucking day, I'm sick of this fucking night and I'm sick of this fucking holiday!' he screamed. The sounds from the river suddenly died. He heard splashing as someone left the river. The others promptly followed and Seto could hear them rustling through the grass as they returned to the campsite, a low murmuring coming with them. Quickly Seto grabbed Katsuya's boney ankle and pulled hard.

'_Get in the tent,'_ he hissed coldly, flicking his torch off and clipping the casing back on. 'And go to sleep! Don't touch me, don't wake me and don't throw up on me. This is just the first of the favours you owe me, mongrel. The conditions are mine.'

Seemingly on some kind of auto-pilot Katsuya scrambled into the tent. His sleeping bag was already unpacked and he tried to wriggle into it but failed, settling instead to sleep on top of it with the bottom end wrapped around one of his legs. Seto tutted when he saw that the idiot had put the boxers on backwards and swiftly set about getting his own sleeping bag out. Someone thundered into the campsite.

'Seto?'

It was Mokuba. Seto watched his thin legs through the tent flaps, wandering around looking for a towel. He found one near the fire and wrapped it around himself as Hiroto and Anzu arrived.

'Seto? Where are you?'

He tried not to make a noise as he unrolled his sleeping bag, but the synthetic material whispered loudly against itself. Mokuba darted to the front of the tent and poked his sopping wet head in.

'Seto! Seto, we heard you shouting, are you alright? Jou-kun didn't come in the river, you weren't arguing were you? Where is Jou-kun? Is this his tent? Are you in his tent, are you sharing with him?'

He could only gape at his little brother. He turned back to his sleeping bag before pulling his shirt and trousers off. He donned a white muscle-tee before delving into his covers, sighing haughtily.

'Nii-sama…?'

'Yes,' he snapped rudely. Mokuba backed away from the entrance. 'I am sharing with Jounouchi. He's in my debt, he owes me favours.' Seto twisted his head around to glance up at Mokuba. His face was thrown in half darkness, one side black and the other blood red from the dying fire. 'Are you happy now? I'm _socialising. _Tell Yuugi his damned Puzzle is by the fire and that Kawai is now sharing with Mazaki. Zip the tent up when you leave.'

Mokuba glared, deeply hurt and confused, before doing as he was told and marching away towards the rest of the campers who were drying themselves with blankets and towels by the fire, breathless and exhilarated. He heard some voices asking what happened to Katsuya but no one asked where Seto was.

Feeling strange and unusually abandoned he settled on his side facing away from Katsuya. He pushed his face into the plush pillow he had brought along, twisting his fingers into the softness. He gazed with half lidded eyes at the side of the tent through which he could see the faint smolder of the campfire. He tried to go to sleep, unable to decide whether to relish or reject the foreign sensation of Katsuya's hot breath washing over the back of his neck.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Ooooh. Blimey, that felt like it took forever to write, longest chapter so far! I hope it wasn't boring. So Seto couldn't brave the skinnydip, ne? We'll see what he does in the early morning. A couple more nights and we'll see what note this fic ends on. I know what happens, nya nya nya!

Please review! Or Jou will throw up on you. Thanks!

...Seriously, please review. Aim for something like 50ish before I get round to posting the next chapter. I'll probably get writers block again, so you've got plenty of time!

* * *

**Author's Note (6-Feb-11):**This chapter has been revised to eliminate spelling/grammar mistakes and general typing errors. Some paragraphs and sentences have been cut-down or extended to improve the flow of the narrative.


	6. Beyond The Knotweed

**Author's Note:** Apparently I updated this at the end of last July. Wow, long time ago. I stopped being interested in YuGiOh for a long time and got terribly obsessed with Batman, but now I have an awful block with both of my Batman fics so I thought I'd best update this. SORRY. I have a curse which means I hit a brick wall after four or five chapters. Both my batfics are stuck on four chapters, so annoying.

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Nudity, very light cussing.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Six**

**Beyond The Knotweed**

Seto was roused by the sound of loud snoring beside his head. He flinched and jerked away at this, scowling deeper when he felt hot breath blow into his ear. Grumbling with distaste, he looked down at his side, where he saw Katsuya slumbering deeply, sprawled on his back with his mouth wide open. Seto judged that Katsuya had clearly been rolling around in his sleep, by the sleeping bag which was even more tangled up around his legs, and by the fact that he had managed to roll into the middle, pushing his tent mate into a small space against the side.

Seto coughed and grimaced, now alert enough to catch the full odour of the tent – Katsuya's alcohol-laced breath, and both of their musty sleep smells. He fumbled blindly for the zip of the inner opening of the tent, clumsy and shivering from his poor slumber. He wriggled from his sleeping bag and tackled the outer tent opening, crawling onto the crumpled, dewy grass, before standing and stretching. It was still early, he deduced, as he cast his eye around. The sky was clear but the air was cold from the night, and the birds' morning chorus was in full swing. He yawned deeply, curling his toes into the cold, dew-damp grass under his feet. Nature called, and he made his way to camphor away from the tents to relieve himself.

Upon his return to the tent area, Seto decided there was a nice feeling to this. He was glad that he had woken before everyone else, able to savour his first morning on his first camping trip alone. Whilst he believed that he truly belonged in the city, he liked what he was seeing nonetheless, and liked what he was hearing and smelling. He gazed over the tops of the sleepy trees and idly watched one of the dogs snapping at a grasshopper as it sprung about. Seto felt as if he was the only person in the entire world who was awake. In his unique, selfish way, he then felt smug that it was he alone who could relish the morning.

Treading silently to preserve his solitude, he moved to the blackened spot where the campfire had been made the previous day. He was desperate for coffee, and knew that no matter what he was going to have to use to make his coffee with on this trip (he suspected instant granules, and cringed) he knew that he was going to need hot water. Out here, that meant making a fire. He was also desperate to wash himself, and that meant getting in the river. He pursed his lips, weighing his options. At the end of a very short debate with himself, he decided to make a fire.

* * *

When he was done making the beginnings of what promised to be a steady campfire, Seto had roused the remaining two dogs from where they slept beside Hiroto's tent, but the campers showed no signs of stirring, for which he was glad. That would give his marvellous campfire time to build up into an impressive blaze. He was able to reach back into his tent and grab his wash bag and a towel without waking Katsuya, whom he suspected to be the most hung-over out of everyone. Smirking, he picked his way towards the river, using the direction he saw the others take as they ran for the water in the previous night's mad, nude escapade. He frowned at the thought of his brother doing such a thing, but it was over now, and he didn't want to spoil the holiday for his brother by bringing it up later. He remembered snapping harshly at Mokuba before he had gone to sleep last night, and was beginning to feel horridly guilty for it.

He quickly reached the river bank, a short path snaking down to the pebbly shallows. The river was not as wide as he suspected, perhaps about thirty-feet in width, and was pleasantly shaded along its visible length by weeping higan cherries and more camphors. The morning was brightening quickly, becoming pale blue and gold, making the face of the river tantalising in all its calm and sparkling serenity. Seto picked his way down the path, which was muddy and eroded with long time use. He slipped a little, and nearly fell into the thick knotweed as the dogs followed him, crashing into his legs and ruining his balance, but he made it without incident. He pondered on what a tremendously odd spectacle he must have been, the great Kaiba Seto – a king in the modern, technological world – wearing nothing more than his boxers and a muscle-tee, standing up to his shins in a calm, rural river, with his towel and wash bag under his arm. He sighed, and decided that it didn't matter what people could possibly think, because at the riverside there stood not a single soul, save for himself, three farm dogs and a few black cows on the high bank across the river between the trees.

Seto grimaced; the water was quite cold. He wanted so dearly to get cleaned up, but at the same time didn't want to get into the cold water. He thought about it for a moment, before deciding that it would be more humiliating to waft around in a bubble of awful body odour in front of the others, rather than to be clean but shivering from the cold. Besides, he had his spectacular campfire to get warmed by when he returned from the river.

Laying down his things on a higher part of the bank, he removed his tee and headed further into the water. The rocks on the riverbed were uncomfortable under his bare feet, and as he inched onwards and the water in turn inched higher up his legs, the cold became more prevalent. As the water was creeping up to his mid-thigh, Seto suddenly had an image of his boxers drying out on the guy-ropes of his tent. He winced at this, and began to wish he'd grabbed his swimming trunks as well, but it was too late, the others would probably be up soon.

Seconds later Seto had waded back to the bank side, discarded his boxers beside his tee and towel, then returned to mid-thigh depth. He glanced around suspiciously, listening intently for sounds of awakening from the campsite. Nothing was to be heard of the other campers.

* * *

Katsuya had been awake for longer than his aching head could cope with, which in actual fact was only a few minutes. He stretched his limbs and shuddered, spanning nearly the whole width and length of his tent.

'Urgh!' He brushed his arm over a bundled sleeping bag at his side, which was still warm from whatever body that had slept in it. He squinted at it, attempting to discern who it belonged to, because it certainly wasn't his, until he realised that both the inner and outer zippers of his tent were undone, and cool, fresh air was washing over him. He frowned at this as he slowly pulled on a pair of jog pants over his back-to-front boxers, then crawled out, his head thumping. The morning was bright and clear, stabbing him in the eyeballs with the force of steak knives, cruelly twisting so far back into his head as to make him believe the very centre of his brains were being plucked at. He groaned, and with much effort dragged himself from the confines of his unduly aromatic tent onto the damp grass. Upon detecting the odour of smoke, Katsuya, bleary-eyed from the nights debauchery, looked up to see a well made campfire, before which sat the small figure of Yuugi, perched on a large log with a blanket wrapped around him. Katsuya stretched and hobbled towards his friend.

'Morning,' he croaked, as he roosted himself on the same log next to Yuugi, leaning into the warmth of the fire. 'Been up long?' he stuttered through a yawn.

Yuugi yawned in response, shaking his head. 'No. God, I'm hanging... and I'm hungry, should we cook something?'

Katsuya agreed, and lumbered clumsily around for the bags of food that had been brought, and for some utensils suitable to cook for two. He returned to the fire with a mess tin, a bottle and a packet of instant tonkotsu ramen.

'Jou-kun, will that be enough...?'

Katsuya groggily looked at the single packet that he had fetched, then turned back to the bags of food to take one more. He gave them to Yuugi along with the mess tin, crippled by another huge yawn. He shook the bottle in his hand, 'I'm just going to get some water from the river... back in a second.'

Leaving Yuugi beside the fire to read the instructions on the back of the packet, Katsuya made his way towards the river to fill the bottle with water, stumbling often as he went, for the ill effects of alcohol still weighed heavily on his perspective and balance. He made it to the river eventually, one arm out-stretched against a weeping higan cherry, the other hand braced against a bent knee. He felt sure that his brain must have transformed into a heart, such was the ferocity of the pulsing that he felt against the insides of his skull. He allowed himself to rest for a moment, but was disturbed by the sounds of splashing from the river. He jumped slightly as a black dog, sodden and excited, leapt over the brow of the river bank and rushed at him.

'Urgh! Mopsa, get down,' he grumbled, pushing away the eagerly lapping tongue and the wet paws. 'No, get down, go and bother Honda-kun, I can't be-'

He paused suddenly, as he heard the light cough of another person from the river. He then heard the bark of another dog and the sound of soft speech, and though he strained his ears as hard as he could, Katsuya wasn't able to hear what words were being spoken. Holding his breath, he crept around the trunk of the higan cherry tree, and crouching low under the veil of its weeping branches he moved closer to the edge of the river, so that he could see across its surface. The little path down to the water was dominated by a huge growth of knotweed, and Katsuya would have ducked behind it, if the sight he was to meet hadn't shocked him so.

What he saw sobered him up considerably. In the waters of the river, only ankle deep as he stood in the shallows, rooting around in a small wash bag on the bank, was Seto Kaiba. He was entirely naked, and in his company was the timid collie, Fly, standing by his feet, her tail wagging madly. Katsuya's eyes were popping, the hung-over haziness suddenly chased from his vision by what he was seeing. Still holding his breath, he dashed back to the cover of the tree trunk, shaking, his mouth wide open in silent exclamation. He wanted to gasp and shout with disbelieving laughter, to point and whoop and tease. He very nearly did, but he refrained from doing so, as strange images of himself, nude and lounging haphazardly across the campsite under the disdainful glare of Seto, swam awkwardly to the front of his mind. Katsuya couldn't remember exactly what he had got up to the previous night, but the foggy memories weren't to his liking at all. After second thoughts, he felt it best not to leap out and frighten the naked Seto; after all, he was partially responsible for persuading the other to join everyone on the trip.

'_But why skinnydip in broad daylight?'_ he whispered softly to himself. 'What a weird fool...'

Sniggering at the oddity, Katsuya retreated a few trees back towards the campsite, and called in an unnecessarily loud voice, 'Yuugi! I forgot to check how much water we need for that ramen! How much _water_ do I need to _collect_ from the _river?'_

Katsuya, of course, knew how much water he had to collect, and instead of listening out for Yuugi's response, he pointed his ear toward the river instead, where sure enough he heard a sharp curse, followed by agitated splashing and barking.

'Okay, thanks Yuugi!'

He walked briskly back to the riverside, whistling as he went. When Katsuya reached the river, he pretended not to notice Seto (who was now far into the deeper waters of the river with only his head above the surface) until he had hopped down the path and stood in the shallows. He made an obvious show of spotting the bundle - Seto's towel, washbag and boxers - laid out on the bank, before looking out across the river with a clear frown on his face. He made a loud gasp when he saw Seto's head in the water, the forehead of which sported a dark scowl, and the cheeks noticeably pink.

'Kaiba!' cried Katsuya, with feigned shock. 'You frightened me for a moment!'

'Go away, dog face! I'm washing!'

'I can see that,' snickered Katsuya. 'I just came to get some water, for the ramen Yuugi and I are going to cook, but you know, a quick, morning dip sounds like a good idea!'

Seto was panic-stricken. _'What?_ No, piss off!'

'The river doesn't _belong_ to you, rich knickers.'

'I don't – what are you doing?'

Katsuya had set the bottle down next to Seto's pile of things, and had started to remove his jog pants. He dropped them to ground and stepped out of them, his hands were now on the hem of his boxers.

'If you take those off and get into this river with me, bonkotsu, I will fire you!'

'You're still _looking?'_ Katsuya said in mock incredulousness. 'Turn away, you pervert! Or didn't you see enough last night?'

Seto's face went completely white, before he swore violently and turned around. Katsuya smirked, quickly dropping his boxers and wading into the water. He gasped at the coldness, pausing when the water reached his thighs. He took several quick breaths, before fully plunging himself beneath the surface. When he re-emerged, Seto had turned back around, and was staring at him with an incredibly nasty expression. Katsuya only laughed.

'Kaiba, it's a pity you didn't join everyone last night, skinnydipping is fun, you know?'

Katsuya watched Seto's face carefully, and surely enough the strong pink tinge returned with a vengeance. He sniggered inwardly, setting off towards a wider part of the river at a steady breast-stroke. Fly leapt into the water and swam towards Katsuya, causing great swathes of laughter. He splashed at the dog, who tried to catch the droplets of water in her teeth. Katsuya, entertained by this, splashed some more, until Fly swam up to him, resting her paws on either shoulder, panting in his face. Katsuya grimaced at the stench, but laughed again nonetheless. He looked back to Seto, who had moved slightly so that his shoulders stood from the surface of the water.

'Figures that dogs attract dogs,' he hissed venomously. 'You are pack animals after all.'

Katsuya was sorely tempted to swim over to Seto and punch him as hard as he could across his hideously bitter face, but, with a great amount of difficulty, he'd admit, he decided not to rise to the bait. The sight of him in the river, which held some of Katsuya's fondest memories, sour and blushing with his dark, sopping hair plastered back from his face, was enough for Katsuya; he knew that Seto was embarrassed enough at being caught in the river. The pink spots of shame on Seto's cheeks were better to Katsuya in that moment than a pair of black eyes would have been.

His mood suddenly black, Katsuya patted Fly and pushed her away, before swimming towards the shallows. As he swam, he spoke in a serious tone.

'These trees, this farm, and this river-' he stopped in front of Seto and planted his feet on the rocks beneath, he stood a whole head higher '-they are my temple. Do _not_ spoil this holiday for me... or your brother.' He could see Seto clench his teeth. 'Now turn around, I'm getting out.'

Seto did just that, and didn't look back to the river bank at Katsuya until he had heard the last snap of an elastic waistband against wet skin. He watched Katsuya stoop to fill his bottle with water. As he walked away from the river, with Fly on his heels, Seto heard him speak once more.

'I hope you enjoyed your early morning _skinnydip_, Kaiba.'

* * *

**Author's Note:** LOL. Kaiba caught in the act, haha.

Please review, or someone will drown you in the river! Or maybe Yuugi will throw hot ramen at you, it's your choice if you don't review!

* * *

**Author's Note (6-Feb-11):**This chapter has been revised to eliminate spelling/grammar mistakes and general typing errors. Some paragraphs and sentences have been cut-down or extended to improve the flow of the narrative.


	7. Van The Man

**Author's Note:** Well it's been a very, very long time indeed! Almost two years in fact! It has been a busy two years. I'm now at university and it eats a lot of time up! I stopped reading books for a long time as well, but recently had a bookworm spree, which made me feel all creative. I should be doing uni work (Illustration, hurrah) but I'm more in the mood for writing than drawing. Lucky for you!

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

**Van The Man**

When Seto returned to the campsite, he was furious to see that everyone was awake, milling around the little campsite, either choosing what to eat for breakfast or picking up the cans and bottles from the previous night and putting them into black bin liners. Seto had not anticipated what he should do if everyone was going to be up and about when he returned back from the river with his legs and arms on display. Instead of thinking too hard about it, still pink-faced from the encounter with Katsuya in the river, he dived straight into the tent and zipped it up behind him, ignoring Mokuba's 'good morning'.

He sat motionless in the tent, still wondering why on earth he was there. He had felt so good when he woken up that morning, so rarely serene and uncharacteristically appreciative of his surroundings, but now he felt fractious and lost. There were no perceivable aims to being on holiday, other than to have a nice time. Seto did not mix well with the lack of goals and still struggled to understand how he had managed to find those good feelings when he had been tip-toeing around the campsite that morning. He huffed, just as someone started to unzip the tent, disturbing his reverie, and realised that he simply liked being alone.

The tent was hanging open and a timid voice floated in. 'Nii-sama, did I do something wrong?'

Seto craned his neck to see out of the tent and into Mokuba's worried face. He hated to make his brother feel bad, but he seemed quite adept at doing so. 'No Mokuba, I just didn't want people to see me.'

Uninvited, Mokuba crawled into the tent with Seto and sat next to him, looking at his arms and legs. They both sat in silence for a while, gradually feeling more and more awkward about the fact that they didn't know what to say to each other. Seto had never been able to summon his emotions into spoken word, so he wasn't surprised about that, but there was a twinge in his heart when Mokuba remained silent. His little brother had always expressed himself without trouble. It hurt to see him at such a loss for words. Instead, Mokuba simply rested a palm over a cluster of old, white puckered scars on his brother's upper arm.

'Nii-sama, even if they see, what do you think will happen?'

Seto didn't reply and only stared as if it had been the most incredulously stupid question anyone could ever ask him, as if the answer was so obvious you'd have to find life on Mars to speak to someone who didn't know.

'What do you think will happen? Tell me.'

Seto felt his face falling into the harsh, stone mask he always wore, the one he knew Mokuba hated but the one he didn't know how to take off. 'They will laugh at me.' He said stiffly and with great difficulty. He struggled to find more words to try to paint what he wanted to say. 'It's weakness... They'll laugh. I hate them.'

Mokuba blinked, unsure whether his brother meant he hated his scars or he hated Yuugi and the gang. He didn't know what to say, having never foreseen the challenges this holiday would present to his brother. He knew how much Seto hated his scars, the old bite marks from Gozaburo's restraints and crops, and the newer, slightly pinker scar from the assassination attempt, but he rarely mentioned them. Mokuba barely saw the scars himself, so careful and paranoid was his brother about what clothes he chose to wear. He often wondered about the metal cuffs and bizarre arm and leg straps his brother chose to wear at times, imitating the placement of the restraints he was forced to sleep in when he was younger, but he had come to the ghastly conclusion that Seto was so used to the feeling of the restraints that it had become an unfamiliar and discomforting sensation to no longer feel them.

It was Mokuba's turn to sigh heavily and he kissed his brother on the cheek. Seto's heart sank deeply into his guts. Mokuba had only ever kissed him like that twice in his life; once after they had encountered Gozaburo's digitalised personality in Noa's virtual reality and once when Yuugi had defeated him in the final match of Battle City. He received this kiss only when Mokuba thought he needed the most support, when he thought his brother was lost and needed the kind of guidance he always tried to shrug off. Seto wondered how Mokuba could possibly think he was so lost on a simple camping holiday.

'Yuugi and Jounouchi are taking Honda-sama's car to the supermarket to get cold foods. You said you'd buy some... will you go?'

Seto didn't answer straight away. 'You're not going to come, are you.'

Mokuba said nothing, and left the tent to give his brother privacy whilst he got dressed.

* * *

By the time Seto had pulled on fresh clothes and tried to make his hair look presentable, the rest of the campers had eaten and most had washed themselves in the river. Ryuji had found the bundled up blanket with the remains of Katsuya's vomit drying inside it, most of it having been picked at by the dogs. The Dice Master made a wild fuss, seeing as it was his blanket that had been soiled.

Seto went to the campfire – _his_ campfire – and perched on a mossy log not far from Yuugi, who looked cold and extremely tired. He didn't take much notice of Yuugi to begin with, but after a while Seto grew curious at the unmoving, slumped posture, the way his head hung on his knees and the way his hands cradled his head. Seto had seen Yuugi cry just once before, and it had been a challenge to stem the flow.

'...Yuugi? What are you doing?'

Yuugi looked up, thankfully without tears staining his face, but he looked undeniably awful. His eyes were bleak and his skin was pale, and to Seto's surprise he was not wearing his giant pyramid necklace, which still lay on the blanket by the fire in exactly the same place where it had been discarded the night before.

'Kaiba-kunnn,' he moaned. 'I'm so, so hung-over.' He whimpered a little, then folded back in on himself. Seto thought he could hear a faint strumming of 'why, why, why' coming from Yuugi's mass of violet hair, which looked like it needed a good brush. Seto shook his head like a disappointed parent and poked at the fire with a stick.

'Mokuba said you and the bonkotsu are going shopping for chilled food.'

'Uh-huh.'

'I will come too. After my coffee.' He stood up to look for a water pan and coffee granules. 'Do we even have any coffee?'

* * *

Half an hour later Katsuya, Seto and Yuugi had bundled into the little car that Hiroto's father kept at the farm for 'the kid's use.' Seto wanted to drive, but Katsuya said no, which resulted in a heated argument. Seto just wanted to be in control Katsuya had said, but he doesn't know how to drive on country roads. Yuugi ignored both of them, lying across both of the backseats of the car, presumably trying to catch a light nap and rid himself of the hang-over, but later on both Seto and Katsuya would wonder why Yuugi hadn't tried to stop them from arguing, the way he always had.

Eventually they were on their way, but the argument hadn't quite dissipated. Seto was sitting in the front passenger seat, whilst Katsuya hunched over the driver's wheel, hurtling pell-mell along the wiggly country roads with blind corners and imposing hedgerows on either side.

'I thought you said you knew how to drive on country roads!' He bellowed directly into Katsuya's ear.

'Ouch, fuck, you're loud! Don't shout in my ear!' He stopped talking for a few moments to evade a sika deer that had leapt across the road in front of them. 'I do know how to drive on these roads, Kaiba, shut up!'

Seto clearly didn't believe him, clutching the grab handle over his shoulder very tightly and looking slightly white. 'You're going to crash on one of these corners, bonkotsu! Slow down!'

'Kaiba, I practically grew up around here with Honda-kun! I could drive these roads with a blindfold on, just relax!'

A little car passed them on the other side of the road, going just as fast as Katsuya, if not faster. Seto decided the country was a place for crazy people, and that it would take a lot to convince him otherwise. He tried to relax though, breathing deeply through his pointed nose and staring at the dashboard. A couple of moments of awkward silence were finally broken when Katsuya flicked the radio on, a cheesy classic filling the small interior. Seto blinked at the radio, wondering at the song. He thought he recognised it, but suspected that he just a likely didn't recognise it. Music was one of the many things that he felt separated him from anyone who was considered 'normal'. Seto didn't listen to music, and didn't know much about it at all. Everyone seemed to have a favourite singer or a favourite band. Some people were very serious about their tastes (Roland constantly defended the honour of something called _'Led Zeppelin'_) and some people were a little embarrassed by it (his PA was often teased for listening to someone called _'Shania Twain'_).

Suddenly curious, and perhaps feeling much safer in his present company than he would have previously felt appropriate, he piped up to ask Yuugi a question.

'Yuugi, what music do you listen to?' There was no reply, so Seto twisted his head around to see what excuse Yuugi could possibly have for ignoring him.

Yuugi was sitting on the same side as Seto in the back, no longer stretched along the whole backseat trying to sleep, probably because Katsuya was driving like a fugitive freshly escaped from prison. His little rival was staring out of the passenger window with a detached, wistful expression on his small, white face. Seto looked at him hard. Yuugi still hadn't put on his silly puzzle pendant.

'Yuugi?'

Purple eyes flashed at him, apologetic and frantic.

'Sorry, what?'

But the moment had passed. Seto felt daft to pull Yuugi out of what seemed to be a deep inattentiveness just to ask him something trivial about music. He shook his head and went back to concentrating on the dashboard to take his mind away from Katsuya's mad driving.

'I like _Van Morrison._'

Seto frowned at Katsuya. 'What?'

'I said I like _Van Morrison._'

Seto said nothing. He hadn't asked Katsuya, and wondered why he had received an answer. He didn't know what _Van Morrison_ was, and began to feel the rising blush of embarrassment creep into his cheeks, so he turned away to prevent Katsuya seeing his tinged-faced, but the clatter of small plastic things drew his gaze back into the car and saw that Katsuya was fiddling with the cassette player, trying to push a cassette tape into it whilst keeping an eye on his less than commendable driving. Seto watched his weathered, veiny hands, silently comparing them to his own. He had always felt that his hands didn't fit his body, as if he'd taken them to the mechanic for servicing one day and they had accidentally given him the wrong ones back. They were long, smooth and white, with a very structured network of protruding veins. Katsuya, as he had noted on the night he'd fallen down the stairs, had knobbly, uneven hands that looked like they worked a lot. He had hands like Roland, which in a way both comforted and unnerved him. He trusted Roland with his life but he felt he'd be hard-pressed to trust Katsuya about as far as he could throw him. Looking at a part of Katsuya and being reminded of his green-haired protector was something he didn't sit well with.

Katsuya finally finished messing around with getting the cassette tape in the player and hit a button. The jaunty twang of a guitar hailed them and a man with a smooth, rounded voice began to sing about a brown-eyed girl. Katsuya leant back into his seat, the spritely music seeming to have a calming effect on his driving. His thumb tapped the wheel in time with the music and silently mouthed the words a long with the singer.

A profound sigh came out of Seto, who was mystified. He sat and listened to the song, analysing the lyrics and trying to understand what the singer was bleating about, wondering how people seemed to relax into the sounds of instruments and voices. He watched Katsuya tap his thumb a little while longer, contemplating how very disconnected he was from the normal world. Seto could never imagine his thumbs or toes tapping away, his head bobbing or his lips singing along; it just seemed so inherently wrong. He turned his head to look at Yuugi, who still managed a light bob of his head despite the apparent gloom that seemed to have descended upon him that day.

By the time the first road signs indicating the direction to 'Town Centre' began cropping up along the sides of the road, which had become less squiggly, better surfaced and slightly busier, the man had sung many songs and was now singing about being stoned just like jelly roll, or at least that's what Seto thought he was singing about. He looked down at his arms as they stopped at some traffic lights at a junction. He felt tingly and even though his flesh were hidden by long sleeves, he knew it was covered with goose-pimples. Katsuya gave him a few looks out of the corner of his eye.

'So, do you like Van The Man?'

Seto scowled and stared hard out of his window to hide his blush. He said nothing.

* * *

'Get bacon, _bacon_ Jou-kun. No not that one, this one –'

Seto could not believe where he was or what he was doing. He must have looked as stupid as a pierced-up punk going into a bakery to buy heart-shaped cookies and unicorn lollipops. Yuugi insisted on wielding the shopping trolley and was pestering Katsuya to rifle through the meat aisle to find just the right kind of bacon.

'The smoked stuff, Jou-kun. Get back bacon, not – no wait –'

Katsuya exaggerated his tutting and eye-rolling, but he was smiling nonetheless. He said he liked it when Yuugi got bossy. It was 'adorable', but Yuugi would often protest at this, making Katsuya laugh even harder. Seto observed their banter, surprising himself when he realised he felt glad that Yuugi was acting a little more cheerful than he had been before. He wondered if Katsuya had noticed Yuugi's odd behaviour.

He was staring distractedly at a shelf of milk, deciding whether or not he was going to get some when a light hand on his shoulder made him shudder and whirl around. It was Katsuya, who looked quite taken aback by Seto's reaction. He was frowning, and Yuugi was no longer with him. Seto looked up the aisle to see Yuugi disappearing around a corner with the trolley.

'I sent him to look for orange juice.' He glanced around in a bizarrely paranoid fashion, as though checking for anyone that might drop eves on what he was about to say. 'There's something up with Yuugi.'

Seto blinked, waiting for Katsuya to continue, but when he realised he was supposed to say something in return he just blinked again. 'Well... He's not wearing his pendant.'

Katsuy nodded frantically as if they were sharing a radical theory about something that might get them thrown into prison. 'Yeah yeah, and did you see how much he drank last night?' He was jabbering in a very hushed, frenzied tone. 'I mean, it wasn't that much, but he doesn't normally –' his head whipped one way, probably because he thought he'd seen Yuugi out of the corner of his eye '– he doesn't normally get _drunk_, y'know? And this thing with not wearing the puzzle?' His tone became lower, even more conspiratorial. 'It's been like this since... y'know, Grandpa died. You remember hearing about that, right?'

A wave of a very alien feeling washed over him. Seto had in fact been the very first person to have contact with Yuugi after his grandfather died, and had walked around the suburbs where Yuugi lived to find him crouched and weeping in a dirty little abandoned bus-stop. Before he had found Yuugi however, he had, quite rudely he may admit later on in life, walked uninvited into the Mutou household and seen the body of old Mutou Sugoroku propped peacefully in his armchair, still staring at the television. He then discovered the puzzle pendant lying on the floor, startled by the way it skittered around on its own. He had never revealed to a single soul that he had been possessed very briefly by the spirit of the puzzle, for a second had been separated from his body, the red eyes of the Pharaoh and the golden eye of the forehead glaring back at him. He cast the spirit out of his body with brute determination, telling the spirit that he would not allow his body to be used to find Yuugi. Instead he insisted that he would find Yuugi himself.*

'Kaiba?'

'Yes,' he said, returning from his memories. 'I think I remember hearing about that.'

Katsuya gripped his upper arm, probably not even thinking about the fact that he had done so, before spluttering wildly, 'I think he's depressed! I mean, like clinically depressed. Like he needs medicine!'

An electric jolt blasted through Seto's body at the sensation of the hand which gently gripped his upper arm, wrapped entirely around the ugly band of scars hiding beneath his shirt. He was rarely touched by anyone, so afraid was he of people discovering his scars or simply just trying to hurt him (being a celebrity billionaire seemed to attract a lot of violently obsessive people). He felt like he had come out of his body again and was looking at the strange scene before him, the tall CEO of Kaiba Corporation standing face to face with the bonkotsu known at Jounouchi Katsuya in a supermarket aisle, sandwiched between rows of milk and cheese and cream and yoghurt.

'Kaiba, are you okay?'

Seto struggled to find words for a second. 'I think –' he wavered as Katsuya's hand let go of his arm, feeling as though a thick, warm blanket had been pulled off him '– I think we should keep an eye on him.' His speech was incredibly forced and almost got stuck in his throat, which annoyed him.

Katsuya nodded. Seto marvelled at the way in which they had just conversed, as if the confrontation in the river that morning had never happened, as if they had never in their lives shared caustic words or flying fists. Katsuya was very quick to forget ill-feelings and was just as quick to forgive. Seto viewed it as a weakness and had been hurt by doing the same thing in the past, a long time ago before he even became a Kaiba. Now he never forgot and never let go, but somehow he was glad that Katsuya was forgetting – maybe not forgiving – just for today. A deep, ugly cloud was gathering over them and he and Katsuya exchanged a peculiarly meaningful glance as Yuugi trundled around the end of the aisle toward them, his face drawn and ashen.

* * *

They had packed the few bags of shopping into the boot of the car whilst Yuugi, who hadn't uttered a single word since he returned to the dairy aisle with the trolley, waited patiently in the backseat. Seto and Katsuya were giving each other the pregnant gazes again, and each knew the other was thinking heavily about what was wrong with Yuugi. Back in the supermarket Seto had surprised himself when he felt he wanted to tell Katsuya that he had been the one with Yuugi the night that Mutou Sugoroku had died. After hearing Katsuya's anxious worries about the state of Yuugi's mental well-being he had been back-tracking through the events of that night to better understand what might be wrong.

He decided it was highly significant that Yuugi was no longer wearing his puzzle pendant, an ancient thing that he was convinced housed the spirit of a three-thousand year old pharaoh. Seto often scoffed at Yuugi's 'imaginary friend' in the past, at least until he had been possessed by it, and then it became impossible to deny that the pharaoh existed, but he never told a soul. Sometimes he still saw the flicker of those crimson eyes in the mirror or in a window.

_If Yuugi was only sad about the old man, wouldn't he be running into the arms of the Pharaoh? _Seto mused to himself. _Why does he avoid that bastard now?_ He thought harder about that night and the other occasions Seto had seen Yuugi since. _Was it me...?_

'Kaiba!'

Seto realised he had been staring away into the side of a car they had parked next to, utterly absorbed by the mystery of Yuugi's sadness, relishing the opportunity to solve a complex puzzle, to win the prize of being the one to figure it out first.

'Get in the car, Kaiba, we need to take the food back and put it into the cool-boxes.'

With a much lighter sigh than he'd been emitting over the course of the last few days, Seto slid into the front passenger seat without much protest, no 'bonkotsu', no 'hmph', no 'whatever'. The radio came on as they drove away, leaving the bustle of the town centre and heading towards the green horizon and those nasty little country roads. A woman with a strange, hard voice was lamenting about tanks and bombs and guns and zombies inside peoples' heads. Seto thought he had heard other women sing better, but he decided to listen to the song and wait for it to end before he turned to Katsuya, who had been discreetly glancing into the rear-view mirror at Yuugi every now and then.

'Can we listen to Van The Man?'

Katsuya smiled, fiddling and flipping the cassette back to the A-side.

* * *

**Author's Note:** WOW they was actually kind of easy to write. I think I always knew I was going to make them go to the supermarket in this chapter. As you can see this is a triangular story (...?), that is to say, we have three main characters to concentrate on.

Please leave lots of luvverly reviews. I haven't proof-read this one, I'm too eager to update! Please point out any major discrepancies with the spelling and grammar! OH and I revised all the old chapters too, because I realised there were some typos and inconsistencies, etc.

I'll try to update a lot sooner next time (sooner than two years away!) There's not much of this story left to tell really. I'll try to make it a nice, round 10 chapters.


	8. Doggy Paddle

**Author's Note:** First of all, thanks to those who reviewed! I'm glad there's still some interest in this story! I should still be doing university work, damn all you lot to Hell. At least you don't have to wait two years to find out what happens next, hah.

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing and mild violence.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

**Doggy Paddle**

Seto had never liked Mazaki Anzu, simply because she had that horrid ability to see straight through him like a highly polished piece of glass. The Other Yuugi had the same ability, though with a simply abhorrent air of haughtiness, and the Little Yuugi had it but to a lesser extent. His desire to wheedle the good and pure out of Seto and into public often got in his way. His stupid little heart was always on his sleeve, a thing that Seto hated, but he recognised it as both a weakness and an advantage for the Little Yuugi – it made him volatile in his patterns, unpredictable and difficult to counter.

Anzu and Yuugi were in the shallows of the river, sitting with their legs stretched out over the pebbles. Seto found the pebbles and rocks in the river particularly uncomfortable, but he supposed they'd been fidgeting for quite a long time before they had discovered a cosy way in which to sit.

Seto was lounging in the deeper part of the river, quite far away from curious eyes, unless he counted the dim cattle who peered down the bank on the other side of the river. He made sure he kept anything below his neck out of view, and was waiting for Anzu to leave before he could get out of the river to hide his scars under his towel then go back to his tent to change. It didn't look like she was leaving however, and he strongly suspected she would stay as long as Yuugi did.

She seemed strangely apprehensive about leaving him alone. Since Seto, Katsuya and Yuugi had returned to the campsite with the cool-boxes of chilled food, Anzu had all but welded herself to the little Game King's side, sweetly simpering over him, asking if he needed anything, if he wanted anything.

Seto snorted to himself. She was a silly girl, but still, she had a keen eye for seeing into people. He supposed she had long-since suspected that Yuugi was not quite right, and about time too.

_If I can see it, then a goddamn lamp post could see it,_ Seto dryly thought to himself.

The sounds of animated chatter and barking came drifting through the camphor trees to the gentle river. Seto inwardly cursed.

Katsuya slid down the bank with one of the dogs at his heels, quite skilfully, probably with years of practice, and tip-toed into the shallows to lean over and briefly exchange some words with Anzu and Yuugi. He watched them converse for all of thirty seconds before Katsuya grinned then made his way into the deeper water, where Seto had been lurking like a poor excuse for a kelpie.

A few strong strokes brought Katsuya alongside Seto. The dog remained at the riverbank, standing near Anzu and Yuugi as it snapped at a passing dragonfly.

'Kaiba,' Katsuya said with an unusual air of civil acknowledgement.

Seto's eyebrows twitched, and he matched the polite tone. 'Bonkotsu.'

Katsuya made an exasperated noise, pushing away from a cluster of rocks beneath his feet, swimming strongly this way and that. Seto eyed him inquisitively, watching how his arms cut cleaning through the water, to which Katsuya seemed to take like a dolphin, utterly at ease and in clear enjoyment of the environment.

Seto was not a very good swimmer. Anything physical had not been an important part of the curriculum that Gozaburo had drawn up for him. The old Kaiba had always harshly said, 'You don't have much of a body, Seto, so it only makes sense to improve your mind. Work harder with your brain, boy.'

Seto would have liked to have contested that statement now, if Gozaburo were still alive. He thought he had quite a good body, apart from all the revolting scars. He was strong and agile, but still no good at swimming. He did not take well to the thought of feeling free and easy in the water, to gambol for gambolling's sake, just as Katsuya was doing.

His eyes flickered over to Anzu and Yuugi. He quickly turned away when he realised that Anzu was watching him with a very faint frown on her face. Huffing, Seto pushed away beneath him and awkwardly started to swim towards Katsuya. He had no idea what he looked like as he swam, probably quite stupid, but he felt like a melon just floating around in the river not doing anything.

Katsuya stopped swimming around for a moment to watch Seto slowly make his way towards him. A nasty smile flashed across his face.

'I can't believe you're always calling me a dog when you're the one who does the doggy paddle.'

'Shut up.'

He finally reached Katsuya and came to a halt in the water. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, but neither moved away.

'I think Mazaki has realised there's something wrong with Yuugi. She won't leave him alone.'

Katsuya's face was very dark. 'That's not saying much,' he murmured lowly, as if afraid the surface of the water would carry his voice all the way over to the wrong ears. 'She's got that knack for knowing what's up with people. I think it's more telling that Otogi is starting to see it. He asked me earlier what was wrong with him.'

Seto's eyebrows were knitted. He didn't know a lot about the Dice Master, hadn't had a lot of contact with him, except for on occasions where they would happen to be at the same business functions.

'Is he stupid like that?'

Katsuya made that exasperated sound again, almost like a dog growling. 'Not stupid,' he snapped. 'He just doesn't see peoples' feelings.' He swished his hands around in the water. 'A bit like you.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

Katsuya sighed and started to languidly slide through the water, though staying close to Seto. 'You're as receptive as a piece of wood, Kaiba. You've got blinkers on. If it's nothing to do with Mokuba or your company, you just don't see it.'

Seto blinked, then scowled. When he spoke his tone was coldly acidic. 'I do see, and I choose not to respond like an over-emotional fuckhead. I have better control over myself than ordinary people like _you,_ bonkotsu.'

Again, Katsuya growled, skimming through the water abruptly to come almost nose-to-nose with Seto. Unlike Seto, his voice was heated. _'You're doing it again,' _he hissed dangerously. 'If you had any idea of the feelings around you right now, you wouldn't talk like you had a dick in you. You might actually be in danger of being marginally tolerable if you had any kind of emotional awareness.'

'_Don't_ –' Seto harshly snarled, '– for one _second_ assume I'm going to become best buds with you and the nerd patrol just because I want to help Yuugi as well.' He paused to sharply draw air through his nose. 'Who would take me seriously as the Duel King if I won the title from a rival who only lost because he's on the edge of some kind of mental breakdown?'

Seto didn't see the fist flying towards him. One ugly _crack _amidst a great splash of water and he was seeing red. A few moments flickered by and he saw Katsuya's terrible war face, bared teeth and all, looming behind the crimson haze. Another crunch of bone and his sight went black.

An electric jolt of panic hit Katsuya. He had punched Seto, quite deservedly he thought, then punched him again for good measure, but had lost him somehow. A twist of the head one way and the other, then a coldness much deeper than the bite of the late-night river water crashed into his stomach.

'_Jou-kun! Jou-kun, get him out!' _

Katsuya hadn't heard Anzu's shrill cry of fright or Yuugi shouting in horror or even the dogs barking wildly. He peered into the water, shaking madly, before plunging like a piston beneath the surface.

The water was murkier than it seemed from above, and the river rocks below them all wore a fluffy green coat of algae that disguised how jagged and painful they were. Katsuya carefully used the rocks with his hands to pull himself along under the water, squinting around, searching for the flash of pale skin.

_There!_

He saw Seto, suspended disturbingly motionless a few metres away. Thrusting madly, he swam over, wrapping his arms around his ribcage and rocketing up from those slimy, fanged river rocks. They blasted out from beneath the surface, sending up cascades of water around them. Katsuya was gasping for breath, but Seto was still limp, apparently not breathing.

'_Kaiba, you bastard! Wake up, Kaiba!' _

A powerful slap around the face did nothing or another slap after more shrieking and swearing. Giving up with that enterprise, Katsuya started struggling back to the shallows of the river, lugging the dead weight of Seto through the water with him. Anzu was wading as best she could to him, her face white, whilst Yuugi remained at the riverbank looking extremely sick. The commotion had brought Hiroto and Otogi crashing through the foliage from the campsite to see what was happening, the sounds of Shizuka and Mokuba's panicking following behind them like a scent.

Finally they reached the water's edge, where Hiroto and Otogi took an ankle each; Katsuya and Anzu with the upper arms. None of them faltered at the texture of the scarring beneath their fingers. Each of them fought against the slippery, muddy slope up from the river, passing as quickly as they could underneath the cool shade of the trees before exploding into the campsite, panting and fretting amongst each other.

'_What happened?'_

'_Jounouchi-kun, what did you do?'_

'_Is he breathing?'_

Yuugi appeared a moment later, having been momentarily foiled by the steep slope from the river. He darted to Seto, who was sprawled on a hideous tartan blanket by the campfire, still unconscious. Mokuba was screeching.

'He's not breathing, he's not breathing! What happened, why isn't he breathing?'

Katsuya felt sick at the sight of Seto lying static on the ground, the sight of Mokuba's bugging eyes and taut, clawing hands. This could unfold to be his deadliest mistake made yet. Without thinking, he knelt on the blanket to rectify it.

He pressed two fingers into Seto's wrist, moving them around, but he couldn't find a pulse, so instead he pressed his fingers into his neck next to his Adam's apple. The faint, repetitive push of pulse was there. Katsuya clenched his jaw. He pressed the heel of his hand into what he supposed was roughly the correct place on Seto's chest, then put his other hand on top. He began to pump the chest, hoping he was helping, then stopped after about twenty seconds. He leant his ear in close to Seto's parted lips, waiting to hear or feel the signs of breathing, but there was nothing. He swore loudly, repeating the chest pumping. Something popped and cracked beneath his hands, making him gag.

'Something popped!' he croaked.

'Keep going, do the breathing, he's not breathing!'

Steeling himself, Katsuya went closer to Seto's head, feeling ill and guilty at the sallow, clammy skin and the half-lidded eyes. He pushed Seto's chin back slightly, opening his throat. He felt the weight of everyone's eyes on him as he pinched Seto's nose shut then made a seal over his mouth with his own.

He gave a full lungful of air to Seto but out of the corner of his eye he didn't see the pale, scarred chest rise with it, so he pulled back, rearranged the position of his head and tried again. Seto's ribs rose with it and as Katsuya leant back to allow them to fall again, the sudden sound of pained choking made him jump.

'_Nii-sama!'_

Seto coughed violently, gasping and clutching his chest. He looked very dizzy and frightened, at least until he saw Katsuya kneeling beside him.

Katsuya didn't have a tenth of a second to react before Seto had awkwardly lunged at him, pinning him to the ground in the midst of gales of protest. They clawed at each other, Katsuya wheezing that he was sorry whilst Seto seemed only capable of emitting inhuman spluttering, practically spitting and crying with how impossibly enraged he was. He face went as red as his vision and ropey veins popped out of his forehead and neck.

'Nii-sama, stop it!'

Seto was on top of Katsuya with his long, spidery hands latched firmly around his neck. He squeezed as hard as if he was trying to snap the bones inside, too far gone to see Katsuya's eyes growing wider and wider, his lips going blue.

Hiroto and Otogi were scrabbling with his back and shoulders, trying to peel him off, whilst Shizuka, Anzu and Yuugi continued with their streams of vocal objection. Mokuba clenched his fists, then stepped in.

_SMACK!_

He had moved around and put his full, teenage force into the blow on the side of his brother's head. Seto was all but knocked clean off Katsuya, though Mokuba would suspect later on that it was most likely from shock rather than anything else. His chest constricted at the sight of his brother's face; the red was still there but fading extremely fast to the white of disbelief, the veins were disappearing and his eyes were very wide and betrayed.

'Mokuba – what – what the _fuck?'_

Mokuba said nothing. He couldn't say anything; his head felt like it was falling off sideways, the palpitations of his heart were agonising and he was fairly sure he was beginning to cry.

At this moment Hiroto stepped in, grabbing Mokuba by the upper arm. 'I'm taking Mokuba to the house.' He scowled, impressively reminiscent of Seto, at whom he was looking. 'You should come to the house too, soon. Maybe all of you, later.'

He turned around, gently marching a compliant Mokuba across the campsite and away up the slope, beyond the trees towards his father's house.

* * *

Honda-sama was gruff about the situation, but did not move to provoke either side into any kind of heated dispute. All of the kids had traipsed up to the house and were now sat around his scrubbed, wooden table which filled the length of his kitchen. He huffed as he waited for his kettle to come up to the boil. He was making pots of green tea and had put out plates of small green, white and pink daifuku (secretly retaining the few strawberry-filled ones for himself). Sweetness was good for shock, and no one could persuade him otherwise.

He cast a jaded eye over the kids. They all looked cold and troubled, especially the little black-haired one and the older one who had fainted the other day and had asked, as soon as he stepped into the house, for any kind of painkiller whilst wincing, holding his chest. Honda-sama huffed again, glancing over at the poor bastard Katsuya who looked as if he was about to cry or kill something, then his son and the girls who were all stony faced. Yuugi seemed lost inside a sad fantasy.

Most of them nibbled half-heartedly on their daifuku, sipping at their green tea apathetically, all save the little black-haired one who was still crying but had the hiccups now, and was simply sitting with the sweet between two hands, hiding his contorted mouth. His older brother was picking pieces from his sweet and completely ignoring his tea, until Hiroto elbowed him sharply.

'You're insulting otou-san,' he hissed. Honda-sama smiled inwardly.

'Finish eating that,' he said in a firm voice to the kids. 'Then I will make a meal.'

He decided to make a yōshoku* meal, it was simpler and quicker. He made them omurice (apart from timid little Yuugi, who politely asked for omusoba instead) and put out a selection of cooked vegetables with them.

Not a single word was spoken amongst the kids as they ate, and all through the heavy silence Honda-sama wondered about the fainting kid's black eye and Katsuya's severely bruised neck.

* * *

_*Yōshoku: Western-influenced cuisine in Japan._

_Omurice: A fried rice omelette._

_Omusoba: Similar to omurice, but made with fried noodles instead of fried rice._

_Otou-san: Father._

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well well well, that was just too easy to write! I had no idea when I began writing that it would end up that way, but hey, it worked well didn't it? Only got enough juice left for one chapter I think, so the next update will probably be the finale! Again, I was too eager to update, so you might find some major typos! I'll come back to sort those out another time I suppose.

Please leave lots of nice reviews! I love to know what you're all thinking. I think I might be nasty and hold the last chapter siege until I get... hum, 10-15 more reviews? I think that's a fair bargain, considering it's taken me less than a week to write this lovely new chapter for you!

So yeah, review it or Seto will strangle yoooooou.


	9. Strength and Weakness

**Author's Note: **Obviously I must start with a thank-you to all who reviewed! Feedback is like oxygen, feedback lifts us up where we belong, all you need is feedback.

Here are the last legs of _Take Me To Water_... there will probably be a tenth chapter or epilogue or something :p

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.

**Warnings:** Swearing and mild violence.

**Summary:** _Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?_

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

**Strength and Weakness**

By the time night had begun to drape a deep blanket of stars over the sky, everyone had returned to the campsite in dribs and drabs, the girls leaving first, solemnly chattering to each other, Otogi and Hiroto after them with a box of eggs and some dried fish that Honda-sama had 'donated', then Mokuba, forlornly with the company of two dogs which bounded along behind him.

Honda-sama had since disappeared into the depths of his house, complaining about his volatile television set, leaving Katsuya, Seto and Yuugi alone, hunched several feet away from each other around the long kitchen table. Their silence was noxiously fathomless, occasionally perforated by the drip of the kitchen tap, the sounds of the livestock outside and the clatter of claws as the collie Fly roamed around, looking for entertainment. Tentatively, Yuugi spoke into the quiet.

'The daifuku was nice.'

Neither Seto nor Katsuya made any indication that they had heard Yuugi, didn't stir or even blink as they stared unseeingly into the swirling grain of the wooden tabletop. Yuugi sighed.

'It was kind of Honda-sama to make us a meal.'

Again, Yuugi was met with the same stillness, until Katsuya shifted abruptly in his seat, but nothing was expressed. Perhaps he had only flinched at something, Yuugi couldn't be sure. Katsuya looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't brave eye-contact, so he fell back into his ashamed stupor, gazing at nothing.

Out of the corner of his vision, Seto looked at Yuugi. He was as gaunt and pasty as he had been earlier in the day at the shopping market, with eyes that seemed to have retreated into their sockets and small, worrying fingers that couldn't stay still, flickering and fidgeting wildly. He wasn't wearing his Puzzle pendant.

'I'm – I'm gonna go back to the camp... see you later.'

Yuugi slipped from his chair and out of the house like a shadow, leaving his greatest friend and his greatest rival sitting mutely at the table, opposite each other.

It may have only been a few minutes, perhaps half an hour or even several hours before Katsuya dared to look up through his hair at Seto.

Seto heard the fabric of Katsuya's clothes shift, so he looked up, a hard glare like flint on his face. Katsuya looked strangely at him as if he was trying very hard to solve a complicated mathematical problem, before trying to work the knot out of his tongue so that he could say something caustic, but he failed. His gaze fell to a point somewhere on the table by Seto's hands before he whispered,

'I'm sorry.'

Seto exhaled deeply through his nose. He didn't return the apology. A horrendous queasiness was building inside him as he remembered the way Katsuya's neck had strained and crunched inside his hands, the way his vision had pulsed as if there was a heart trapped inside his forehead. He listened as Katsuya struggled to make another word; his tongue finally excreting a floppy, pathetic sound. Perhaps he had tried to be angry at Seto's lack of apology.

'I –' Seto faltered. Katsuya looked up. 'I...' His attempt was just a breath.

_How can words apologise for this?_ He thought to himself, staring at his long, white hands.

'I didn't mean... to... do that.'

His attempt was dismal, but he thought it would be enough, at least until he forced himself to look up at Katsuya's face. A black and somehow betrayed scowl had settled there, lips pursed and eyes narrowed like the spy-holes of a pillbox.

'Is that all?'

Seto didn't know what to say. For him it was so easy to blame everyone else for everything that ever went wrong, to postulate that there was always someone else more wrong than he was. His mind went tumbling back to what had happened at the campsite. Katsuya awaited his response with a clenched jaw.

'Well?' he hissed. 'Is that really all you have to say?'

Seto felt an unfamiliar flicker of panic. Katsuya had set his fists upon Seto before, maybe once or twice Seto's own had retaliated and some punches had been landed between the two. A bleeding nose here, some bruised pride there, never more. He cringed, still trying to forget the sensation of Katsuya's neck crushing between his palms.

'_Kaiba!' _

Katsuya had leapt to his feet, his chair clattering backwards onto the floor. Fly yelped and assumed a submissive crouch in the corner of the kitchen. The distant murmur of Honda-sama's television suddenly died.

Seto's breath hitched. He was quite unaccustomed to the feeling of guilt. 'Well!' he exclaimed. '_You_ shouldn't have hit me!'

Katsuya's mouth slumped. _'You_ shouldn't bitch about my friends!'

'_You_ shouldn't be so sensitive!'

'_You_ need to be _more_ sensitive.'

Seto had nothing to throw back. He had heard these kinds of words many times before. He was sick of being told that he should care more or that he should feel more.

'I am plenty sensitive for those who deserve it,' he said, coldly.

In a swift motion that Seto would admit made him jump a little, Katsuya brought both of his fists down on the table, hissing through his teeth and quite pink with rage. Fly had obviously seen enough, fleeing from the kitchen with her tail between her legs.

'I'm – _so sick_ – ' he screeched, 'so impossibly _sick_ of you!'

Seto unfolded from his chair, towering above Katsuya across the table, ten times more imposing, but slightly at a loss. Somehow he didn't want to fight, and seeing the bonkotsu filled with so much rage that he practically became a spluttering animal was nowhere near as entertaining as it usually was. So Seto let him screech.

'I'm sick of you!' Katsuya repeated. 'Sick! We try hard, we really do! Or did – and just... in our faces!' He imitated the motion of something being thrown in his face. 'We wanted to be your friend! At least appreciate that – that some of us believe you to be our friend!'

He took a moment to gain some breath. Seto stared.

'Just – _stop_ – walking all over us. Stop stepping on Yuugi.'

At last Seto found the end of his rope. He slapped his palms onto the table in an echo of Katsuya's frenzy.

'_How dare you?'_ he bellowed. 'How dare you? You have no idea what you're talking about! You don't have a fucking clue!'

He waved his arms around in apparent frustration, paling with his anger in contrast to Katsuya's rising crimson.

'You don't know, do you?' He continued, his voice cracking with the immense volume he was generating, pointing a razor-like finger. 'You don't have the faintest idea; I'll bet he's never said anything about it to you!'

Katsuya was guarded now, his skin now beginning to whiten and his eyes darkening. He frowned, unsure of what to make of Seto's ramblings.

'What do you mean?' he warily enquired. 'Who are you talking about?'

Seto looked crazed and triumphant. 'That night, when Mutou-san died. Do you remember? Do you remember that?'

Katsuya's eyes flashed.

'_I_ was there. I found Yuugi, _I_ found him. It was _me._ And he _wanted_ me to be there.'

Katsuya was paper white now, and his eyes were like tunnels.

'When I found him he was _pleased,' _sneered Seto._ '_He let me hold him. He let me take him home. And I'll bet he never told _you,_ his _best friend.'_

Seto finished, victorious. In a strain of warped it made him better, that he had been there for Yuugi at the time of his grandfather's death, and not Jounouchi Katsuya, but Katsuya did not react the way Seto had expected. He expected more spittle to fly, more whirling fists and shouting, but he was as still and silent as a rock.

'Was he wearing it?'

Seto gaped, taken aback by the steady, dark tone of voice. 'Wearing what?'

'His pendant.'

He didn't need to exercise any effort to raise his memories of that night. Seto knew that Yuugi hadn't been wearing his Puzzle pendant.

'... No. He wasn't.'

Katsuya sighed so long that Seto thought he might completely deflate, before he turned around, set his chair upright and slumped deeply into it, as if a goodly portion of life had suddenly been sucked out of him.

'I don't know what this means,' he said, curiously defeated. 'But it obviously means a lot to Yuugi.'

Seto also took his seat, hesitating as to whether he should tell Katsuya more about what had happened that night. Should he divulge the information about his meeting with the Spirit of the Puzzle? About his short stint as its host?

'He is deeply affected,' Seto offered, his anger suddenly removed as though by surgery, leaving him a little confused and hollow. 'He behaved quite bizarrely that day we met for Honda's birthday.'*

Katsuya sighed, chewing his thumb nail and frowning at the table. 'Did he say anything?'

Seto couldn't remember the particulars of the attempts Yuugi had made to engage him in conversation, but remembered an instance of the Spirit taking over Yuugi's body. It hadn't occurred so fluidly as it usually seemed to, and as the Little Yuugi elbowed his way back into tangible state, the Other Yuugi seemed to suffer a stab of pain and had fainted. Seto tried hard to remember more, as he was sure he had exchanged some words with the Spirit.

'I don't remember much,' he admitted.

Another awkward silence fell, and both noticed that Honda-sama's bothersome television had resumed its distant droning.

'Let's go back to the camp,' Katsuya murmured. 'And try to forget how we nearly killed each other...' He added that last note with an air of dry humour and perhaps he had smirked a little. Seto didn't quite know what to make of that, but somehow it was comforting. Perchance it was a premature form of forgiveness.

* * *

Having already supped at the house, the most anyone could put down their necks later in the evening were frugal portions of instant noodles or some handfuls of supermarket snack-foods. Seto stomached a pair of eggs that he boiled over the fire in a mess tin with a little rice, whilst Katsuya noisily slurped on noodles.

There was light chatter and even some laughter, but an oppressive tension weighed down upon them and many an apprehensive glance fell upon Katsuya and Seto out of the corners of worried eyes. Mokuba and Yuugi escaped the uneasiness, having put themselves to bed before Katsuya and Seto had returned from the house. Seto felt sick to his stomach that Mokuba was resorting to a method of avoidance but was at a complete loss how to handle it. He gazed as Katsuya sat close to his little sister. They were nattering away quietly, perfectly at ease. As Seto understood, they did not live together and relished the occasions when they were able to see one another, which was not too often on accounts of the bad air between the mother and father.

Seto frowned as he watched Katsuya talk to Shizuka. He knew how to make her smile and laugh and was probably perfectly adept at consoling her in the times of sadness and callow desperation girls went through at that age. Katsuya was a poor excuse for a human by Seto's standards and was barely able to support himself financially, but he was clearly an expert at the business of being an elder sibling. Perhaps, later on, he could ask how best to deal with the situation with Mokuba.

He was suddenly struck with the eye-gravel of exhaustion and yawned into the glow of the fire. He stood, wiggled a few clicks out of his backbone before turning away to get into his and Katsuya's tent.

'It's only 9 o' clock, Kaiba-kun,' came Shizuka's little voice. Seto looked back to see all remaining faces turned to him. He paused.

'I'm tired,' he said, briskly. He thought of leaving it at that, a perfectly adequate explanation, but felt a little sugar wouldn't go amiss in light of Katsuya's passionate conjectures regarding his machine-like conduct. 'I'll – I guess I'll see you all in the morning. Good night.'

He gritted his teeth as he ducked into the tent. What a horridly clunky thing to say, and so unlike him! The etiquette of social acquaintanceship versus that of the business world troubled him. It was so fake and yet seemed to make people happy. Perhaps people enjoyed the effort it took to feign respect. What a deformed, sadistic variety of pleasure.

He wriggled into some loose-fitting jog-pants but did not bother with a muscle-tee that night. He sank into his airbed, which he had finally got round to inflating shortly after returning from the supermarket and huffed before closing his eyes and trying to welcome slumber.

* * *

It was not long after midnight when Katsuya finally scrambled into the tent, yawning and shuffling around for his night clothes. In his attempts to disentangle some pyjama bottoms from his rucksack, he accidentally let go of them and elbowed Seto in the side of his gut which made him give an audible grunt, quite unbecoming of his usual, stoic poise. Katsuya winced.

'Sorry, I slipped,' he whispered hurriedly, concerned that Seto might think he'd done it on purpose.

'Whatever,' breathed Seto, rolling over to give a hard glare, but its effect was lost upon his sleepy expression and puffy, tired eyes. His black eye looked even worse in the dim light. Katsuya stared as he got into his pyjamas.

'Haven't you slept at all yet?'

'A little bit. I was sort of awake before you came in.' He struggled to prop himself up on his elbows, grimacing in pain then flopping back again. 'My ribs fucking hurt,' he groused.

'So does my neck,' Katsuya hissed, a little too acidic. Seto looked at him.

'You nearly _drowned_ me,' he said in his dangerous, dead-pan tone.

'And you _strangled_ me!'

Seto huffed. 'I'm too tired for this again,' he complained. 'I am fully aware that I acted disproportionally, and I am sorry for it.'

His 'apology' was stony and without feeling, but Katsuya realised that it was the best he would get for the time being. Lingering on what had happened made him uneasy and if he had his way he would have the memory erased.

'Why did you blow up so bad? I've punched you before and you never flew off the handle like that.' He watched Seto intently. 'You normally just punch back, then get on with things.'

Seto was silent for a very long time. Katsuya thought that perhaps he was ignoring the matter out of stubbornness, or had fallen back to sleep, but eventually he spoke.

'I was... embarrassed.'

Katsuya frowned, quite confused. 'Of what?'

'Being seen like that.' He was picking at his sleeping bag with anxious fingers. 'Not being in control – I wasn't awake, and everybody saw me.'

Something dawned on Katsuya and he began to remember the sight of Seto, lying there with most of his skin exposed. He was covered in ugly scars. In the mayhem of the resuscitation, no one would have focused on Seto's skin of all things. Katsuya let his eye wander over Seto's body as he lay on his airbed. He had bands of scars around his upper arms and forearms. He saw the legendary scar left behind from the assassination attempt upon Seto from the previous year, a puckered, pink kiss in the centre of his stomach.

'I suppose,' he began with great caution, 'not many people have seen those?'

Seto became conscious of Katsuya's eyes and drew his sleeping bag up around his shoulders, hiding his blemishes.

'Very few,' he whispered.

There was a long, awkward silence.

'How do you feel now that we've all seen them?'

'Absolutely humiliated.' He spoke with a defeated tone of dejection, as though his secret was one that would lead to a great scandal, and now he was preparing for a Roman demise now that the cat was out of the bag.

'Why?'

Seto looked at Katsuya with a perplexed expression. 'Why? Because they are a weakness. They show that I have once been very weak, and the fact that they are permanent means I will always have some form of weakness lingering about me.'

Katsuya snorted. 'Load of shit,' he chuckled. He watched Seto, expecting a reaction but nothing happened, so he settled into a pensive reverie, sensing that he somehow managed to vaguely upset Seto.

'They're not a sign of weakness,' Katsuya said after a while. 'As a matter of fact, they're a sign of strength.'

'And how did you come to a stupid conclusion like that?'

'Well... they show that you have faced a great danger and have survived it. You came away and carried on with life. That is strength.'

Seto was struck off-guard by this bizarre wisdom and wondered if Katsuya was speaking from his own experiences.

'They are battle scars.'

Seto pondered on that. He liked the sound of 'battle scars', even though the majority of his scars we gained in a very uneven manner through way of abuse. But his belly scar was, now that he thought about it, somewhat of a battle scar.

'I suppose you could say that,' he said distantly.

Again, the long silence.

'How did you get the ones on your arms?'

At that Seto decided he'd had enough, and rolled over to face the opposite side of the tent, away from Katsuya, pulling his sleeping bag closely over himself. Katsuya did not speak again and settled into his own sleeping bag. They both feigned sleep for what could have been ten minutes or an hour, until Seto gently fell away into a genuine slumber, beginning to regret speaking about his worries concerning his exposed scars.

Seto awoke with a cold jolt of panic. Something was touching his arm, but as soon as he had woken it quickly withdrew. He feared a spider or rodent or snake, but he heard close, steady breathing behind his back. It was Katsuya.

'What are you doing?' he said, alarmed, turning to look at Katsuya who had shimmied closer so that their sleeping bags were nearly touching.

'Nothing,' he answered, clearly embarrassed at being caught out. 'I just wanted to know what they feel like – I didn't expect you to wake up.'

'Stoppit!' he spat, quite distressed. 'Don't touch me!'

'Why?'

Seto stared, astonished. 'What do you mean _why? _Because I said so! I don't like –'

His words failed and his breath got lost as Katsuya's hand shot out and wrapped around the back of his neck, gently squeezing.

'You probably can't remember the last time you let someone touch you.' Katsuya said, letting go of Seto's nape, then jabbing a finger into his ribs. 'I suppose you're too paranoid.'

Seto said nothing. The hand on the back of his neck had completely immobilised him and gave him strange rushes under his skin. The jab in the ribs was simply annoying. He said nothing for a long time and instead listened to Katsuya's soft breathing, until he finally whispered, 'No.'

Once more Katsuya's hand darted out and this time he firmly gripped the side of Seto's waist. Seto gasped, shocked. He had never realised this was such a sensitive and responsive part of his body, not quite ticklish but uncomfortable in a bizarrely pleasant way. He felt calluses on Katsuya's fingers, which did not move for the longest time. When the rush of the unfamiliar hand had left Seto, Katsuya, as if by telepathy, knew he was safe to begin moving his hand. He explored the ripples of Seto's ribs, before smoothly sliding his hand across a wider expanse of skin where the tips of his curious fingers located the furrowed mutilation in the centre of Seto's stomach.

Seto's lungs quickly filled. He felt naked in the daylight at the touch of this hand. Katsuya pressed, as if trying to find a latch to unlock Seto from his husk. Seto winced, before rolling over to look at Katsuya eye to eye. He exhaled, and his taut muscles wilted.

* * *

**Author's Note:** That took so long, and I'm so sorry! It sat there half completed for weeks. I am bad. Looks like this is going to be one chapter longer than I originally anticipated, there was so much more that I had intended to put into this chapter, but I had to be so slow and delicate with what I was trying to achieve. Someone like Seto won't give over very easily!

I hope it wasn't too slow, I don't want this physical area to be rushed, whether or not it will lead to anything at all. Human nature is unpredictable, even for well-set characters such as Jou and Seto, the best you can do is deconstruct them and with observations from reality and your own experiences try to create something plausible! Personally I am of the firm belief that Seto is extremely sexually repressed and very ill-experienced (perhaps still a virgin) and is far more likely to be uke than Jou, who is confident with his masculinity I think and compared to Seto had a much more normal upbringing with much more ordinary integration into 'society' and its etiquette (hey, joining a gang, being a bully, looking at tits and making weird friends is a lot more normal than taking over a multi-billion dollar company from your abusive step-father in your mid-to-late teens and basically having control over a whole city because you're that fucking rich).

Anyway, enough banter. I won't make any promises about the next chapter this time, on top of a billion things I have going on in my life at the moment I am also experiencing internet issues (this is the first time I've been online for about two weeks). You'll get it when it's done!


End file.
